Christopher Michel
@christophermichel.com
Photographer of inspiring humans. Artist-in-Residence at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine. https://linktr.ee/ChrisMichel
I made these portraits of @alexhonnold.bsky.social at Union Glacier in Antarctica just after he came down from Mount Vinson. He warmed his hands, cracked a smile, and you could feel it in the room that he was already thinking about heading back out into the white.
November 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I made these portraits of @alexhonnold.bsky.social at Union Glacier in Antarctica just after he came down from Mount Vinson. He warmed his hands, cracked a smile, and you could feel it in the room that he was already thinking about heading back out into the white.
[email protected] is an astronomer at Caltech whose discoveries reshaped our understanding of the solar system. His work played a central role in the reclassification of Pluto. Brown now searches for the unseen giant that may be hiding far beyond Neptune, a hypothetical world known as Planet 9
November 29, 2025 at 3:18 AM
[email protected] is an astronomer at Caltech whose discoveries reshaped our understanding of the solar system. His work played a central role in the reclassification of Pluto. Brown now searches for the unseen giant that may be hiding far beyond Neptune, a hypothetical world known as Planet 9
Early evening at Embarcadero Center. A simple moment where the architecture shows its scale without trying.
San Francisco. Hasselblad X2D II.
San Francisco. Hasselblad X2D II.
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Early evening at Embarcadero Center. A simple moment where the architecture shows its scale without trying.
San Francisco. Hasselblad X2D II.
San Francisco. Hasselblad X2D II.
Grateful for Sadie!
November 28, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Grateful for Sadie!
Kristen Edwards Marquardt has spent her life working at the edge of national security and technology. She has served as an intelligence advisor at Homeland Security, as a staff member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and earlier as an operations officer at the CIA.
November 26, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Kristen Edwards Marquardt has spent her life working at the edge of national security and technology. She has served as an intelligence advisor at Homeland Security, as a staff member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and earlier as an operations officer at the CIA.
Magical Yosemite
November 25, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Magical Yosemite
"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me?" - Out of Africa
November 25, 2025 at 10:13 PM
"If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me?" - Out of Africa
Dark water stretching out toward the rim of the world, sky pressed low, a hint of light slipping through the storm. Svalbard keeping her secrets. #photography
November 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Dark water stretching out toward the rim of the world, sky pressed low, a hint of light slipping through the storm. Svalbard keeping her secrets. #photography
ceanic hush
silver breath on restless waves
night folds into mist
silver breath on restless waves
night folds into mist
November 25, 2025 at 1:37 PM
ceanic hush
silver breath on restless waves
night folds into mist
silver breath on restless waves
night folds into mist
Dr Joanne Chory was one of the great plant biologists of our time. She spent her career uncovering how plants sense and adapt to their world, work that reshaped climate science and agriculture. Sharp mind, bright spirit, standing here at the @salkinstitute.bsky.social. @nationalacademies.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Dr Joanne Chory was one of the great plant biologists of our time. She spent her career uncovering how plants sense and adapt to their world, work that reshaped climate science and agriculture. Sharp mind, bright spirit, standing here at the @salkinstitute.bsky.social. @nationalacademies.org
Daniel Ellsberg spent his life urging America to choose truth over power. A whistleblower who carried the weight of a nation and still found room for gentleness. Here with Patricia, his companion through it all. Remembered for courage, conscience, and a heart that stayed open to the end.
November 24, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Daniel Ellsberg spent his life urging America to choose truth over power. A whistleblower who carried the weight of a nation and still found room for gentleness. Here with Patricia, his companion through it all. Remembered for courage, conscience, and a heart that stayed open to the end.
Bob Behnken: Engineer, astronaut, quiet force in the American space program. He’s flown on two Shuttle missions, helped bring Crew Dragon into the world, and spent long hours working in the guts of spacecraft most of us will only ever see in museums. @nationalacademies.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Bob Behnken: Engineer, astronaut, quiet force in the American space program. He’s flown on two Shuttle missions, helped bring Crew Dragon into the world, and spent long hours working in the guts of spacecraft most of us will only ever see in museums. @nationalacademies.org
Dr. Jacques Vallée is a scientist & iconoclast whose work spans astrophysics, computing, and the study of unexplained aerial phenomena. It is no accident that he became the real-life inspiration for the French scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
November 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Dr. Jacques Vallée is a scientist & iconoclast whose work spans astrophysics, computing, and the study of unexplained aerial phenomena. It is no accident that he became the real-life inspiration for the French scientist in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
W. E. Moerner sits in a cave of circuitry and paper, a tight little world of wires, radios, bright drawers, and half finished projects. Hard to believe this quiet corner belongs to a Nobel Prize winning chemist who showed the world that a single molecule could be seen.
November 22, 2025 at 4:27 AM
W. E. Moerner sits in a cave of circuitry and paper, a tight little world of wires, radios, bright drawers, and half finished projects. Hard to believe this quiet corner belongs to a Nobel Prize winning chemist who showed the world that a single molecule could be seen.
New Heroes portrait of Dr Alia Crum for the @nationalacademies.org
She studies how beliefs shape stress, healing and even the way we feel hunger.
A scientist who keeps showing that the stories we tell ourselves matter more than we think. More: explorers.com/alia-crum/
She studies how beliefs shape stress, healing and even the way we feel hunger.
A scientist who keeps showing that the stories we tell ourselves matter more than we think. More: explorers.com/alia-crum/
November 21, 2025 at 2:39 AM
New Heroes portrait of Dr Alia Crum for the @nationalacademies.org
She studies how beliefs shape stress, healing and even the way we feel hunger.
A scientist who keeps showing that the stories we tell ourselves matter more than we think. More: explorers.com/alia-crum/
She studies how beliefs shape stress, healing and even the way we feel hunger.
A scientist who keeps showing that the stories we tell ourselves matter more than we think. More: explorers.com/alia-crum/
I photographed Robert Sapolsky in his backyard in SF. Even here among the city trees you feel that fieldwork woven into him. The long curls, the steady gaze, the sense that he has lived close to the edge of nature and carried that rawness back into his scientific life. @nationalacademies.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:23 PM
I photographed Robert Sapolsky in his backyard in SF. Even here among the city trees you feel that fieldwork woven into him. The long curls, the steady gaze, the sense that he has lived close to the edge of nature and carried that rawness back into his scientific life. @nationalacademies.org
I photographed William Tarpeh in his Stanford lab, surrounded by the quiet hum of experiments and the small devices he uses to pull value out of what the world throws away. More: explorers.com/william-tarp... @nationalacademies.org @macfound.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:51 AM
I photographed William Tarpeh in his Stanford lab, surrounded by the quiet hum of experiments and the small devices he uses to pull value out of what the world throws away. More: explorers.com/william-tarp... @nationalacademies.org @macfound.org
Tony Hawk has spent a lifetime chasing the strange lift that comes when wheels meet wood. I photographed him on the Nakasendo trail in 2023, walking old mountain roads with a small group of friends.
November 18, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Tony Hawk has spent a lifetime chasing the strange lift that comes when wheels meet wood. I photographed him on the Nakasendo trail in 2023, walking old mountain roads with a small group of friends.
I met @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social in the soft morning light at Berkeley. She moved through the lab with this calm clarity, like someone who has spent years listening closely to the secrets inside cells. A scientist who changed the future and still greets you with warmth and curiosity.
November 13, 2025 at 10:38 PM
I met @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social in the soft morning light at Berkeley. She moved through the lab with this calm clarity, like someone who has spent years listening closely to the secrets inside cells. A scientist who changed the future and still greets you with warmth and curiosity.
Héctor D. Abruña welcomed me into his sprawling battery labs at Cornell, where every bench feels alive with experiments, students, and the quiet hum of future energy systems. He talks about fuel cells with real joy. Pure enthusiasm layered on decades of deep electrochemistry @nationalacademies.org
November 13, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Héctor D. Abruña welcomed me into his sprawling battery labs at Cornell, where every bench feels alive with experiments, students, and the quiet hum of future energy systems. He talks about fuel cells with real joy. Pure enthusiasm layered on decades of deep electrochemistry @nationalacademies.org
@kevinkelly.bsky.social has spent his life exploring how technology shapes human experience. He helped launch Wired and became one of its most influential voices, known for big, clear ideas about tools, culture, and the future.
November 13, 2025 at 3:26 PM
@kevinkelly.bsky.social has spent his life exploring how technology shapes human experience. He helped launch Wired and became one of its most influential voices, known for big, clear ideas about tools, culture, and the future.
“There are still so many questions to answer. When you look at any part of the universe, you have to feel humbled.”
Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter for the @nationalacademies.org @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter for the @nationalacademies.org @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
November 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
“There are still so many questions to answer. When you look at any part of the universe, you have to feel humbled.”
Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter for the @nationalacademies.org @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
Nobel laureate Saul Perlmutter for the @nationalacademies.org @berkeleylab.lbl.gov
Paul Ginsparg changed how science is shared. In 1991, in a small Cornell office filled with chalk dust and curiosity, he built ArXiv, the first open-access preprint server. His idea rewired the global flow of knowledge. Physics first, then the world.
#NewHeroes @nationalacademies.org
#NewHeroes @nationalacademies.org
November 10, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Paul Ginsparg changed how science is shared. In 1991, in a small Cornell office filled with chalk dust and curiosity, he built ArXiv, the first open-access preprint server. His idea rewired the global flow of knowledge. Physics first, then the world.
#NewHeroes @nationalacademies.org
#NewHeroes @nationalacademies.org
"Knowing without seeing is at the heart of chemistry." New Heroes portrait of @nobelprize.bsky.social laureate & Cornell Professor Roald Hoffmann for the @nationalacademies.org &
@nasonline.org.
@nasonline.org.
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 PM
"Knowing without seeing is at the heart of chemistry." New Heroes portrait of @nobelprize.bsky.social laureate & Cornell Professor Roald Hoffmann for the @nationalacademies.org &
@nasonline.org.
@nasonline.org.
Portrait of mathematician Steven Strogatz at Cornell. Strogatz studies the mathematics of connection, from the rhythm of fireflies to the beating of the heart. @stevenstrogatz.com
More explorers.com/steven-strogatz
More explorers.com/steven-strogatz
November 7, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Portrait of mathematician Steven Strogatz at Cornell. Strogatz studies the mathematics of connection, from the rhythm of fireflies to the beating of the heart. @stevenstrogatz.com
More explorers.com/steven-strogatz
More explorers.com/steven-strogatz