The Narwhal Discoveries team is proud to announce the opening of the “Narwhal, revealing an Arctic Legend” exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on Thursday August the 3rd.

Martin Nweeia DMD, DDS, content curator for the new exhibit at the Smithsonian, is a full time dentist who developed his research interest in the function of the narwhal tusk as a passion of curiosity.

Rarely do curators at the nation’s leading Museum come from the citizen science community, but Nweeia has been persistent and successful in his passion. With his unique perspective of including Inuit elders and hunters with myriad groups of scientists, his work was cited in a “Highlight’ to the US Congress as “a model for science as it seeks to better understand our world.” Collaborations formed under his direction as Principal Investigator are Narwhal Tusk Discoveries, The Narwhal Genome Initiative, and The Narwhal HoloLens Experience with an augmented reality vision of live narwhal swimming and an Inuit elder describing observations of traditional knowledge.To continue exploring these academic avenues of interest, Nweeia was appointed academic positions on the faculties of dental medicine at Harvard and Case Western Reserve Universities, and research associate positions at the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

“Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend, also for youth ”

It took Dr. Nweeia sixteen expeditions to the Arctic to accumulate his knowledge on the Arctic world of the Narwhal as well as the interconnected relationships between humans, arctic mammals and their changing environment. Environmental economist Pamela Peeters joined him on his last expedition to Pond Inlet (Baffin Island) and engaged in community outreach, film and photography. She wrote a book for children about the experience entitled “Eco Hero goes to Canada” inclusive of a teachers manual. She has now also developed the “ECO HERO trail” as to enrich the experience for youth interested in this exhibition.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free.

About Narwhal Discoveries : http://www.narwhal.org
About the Smithsonian : https://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/narwhal/
About Pamela Peeters : http://www.pamelapeeters.com
Pamela Peeters info@pamelapeeters.com