Stewart Brand, Co-founder, Revive and Restore; Founder, The Long Now Foundation; Founder/Editor, The Whole Earth Catalogue
Ryan Phelan, Co-founder and Executive Director, Revive & Restore
Gabriela Quirós Producer, KQED Science  –  Moderator 

Brand and Phelan seek to restore extinct species to their former homes in the wild. Their organization Revive & Restore’s flagship project The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback is underway to bring the iconic passenger pigeon back from extinction using the genome of the band-tailed pigeon and genomic technology. Not shying away from the gargantuan challenges of de-extinction, the organization is pushing forward an endeavor to recreate the woolly mammoth in order to generate ecosystem changes capable of altering adverse climate change on a global scale. These audacious projects also advance the use of biotechnology for the genetic rescue of existing endangered species, such as Revive & Restore’s newest project: the endangered black-footed ferret.

Revive & Restore helps coordinate efforts so that genomic conservation can move ahead with the best current science, plenty of public transparency and the overall goal of enhancing biodiversity and ecological health worldwide. Phelan is a serial entrepreneur and was the founder and CEO of two innovative health-care companies, DNA Direct and Direct Medical Knowledge. Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue, was trained as a biologist at Stanford and served as an infantry officer in the US Army.