Meet Bibi Renssen | Marine Biologist and Explorers Club Outreach Coordinator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bibi Renssen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bibi, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. Although the club was founded in New York City in 1904, we did not decided to create a Southern California Chapter until much more recently. Since NYC is across the country, creating a more localized chapter within the club allowed like-minded, curious, adventure driven people from the west coast, specifically Southern California, to come together and discuss their current discoveries and expeditions. Being part of the larger club gives people a lot in common but creating a more intimate setting within this larger organization allows for collaborations among locals, in person talks and discussions, as well as a more intense feeling of being a part of something bigger. The thought process behind starting the chapter was to put names to faces, and connections to names, and to allow a fast network of explorers to come together and expand each others’ minds.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am currently an early career marine biologist working on my PhD at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, one of the oldest and most well-established research institutions for oceanography. I work in a lab that analyzes the ecological and biogeochemical interactions between reef organisms, specifically corals, and how this is affected or altered by anthropogenic and natural stressors. I have always been mesmerized by the ocean and the creatures that inhabit it, and got my scuba certification when I was fourteen years old. While everyone else was scurrying after the sharks and bigger fish, I was absolutely perplexed by the intensity and complexity of corals, individual organisms that build colonies large enough to create entire reefs and uphold entire ecosystems. I understood quickly that my fascination and drive to understand reef systems was more intense than that of my fellow divers whose curiosity did not extend past recreational fascination. With coral reefs diminishing at an astonishing rate and an estimated 1 billion people globally relying on coral reefs for food, coastal protection, and income, I knew I wanted to be a person who would aid in its restoration and conservation, as well as gain a general further understanding.
Before starting college, I took a gap year where I traveled to 9 different countries to experience different cultures and ways of living, as well as seeing how the problems of diminishing reefs is being handles and cared for in different part of the world. I spent 4 months of that gap year working on a coral restoration project in Madagascar, analyzing transect on local reefs in order to educate myself and others further on this problem.
Once I started college, I worked incredibly hard to get hands on research opportunities, aiding on four various oceanographic projects throughout my undergraduate program. I had my eye on starting a PhD program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography to study corals further by the time I started my second year of my undergraduate. I went to events, talked to professors conducting research there, volunteered in labs and more, in order to understand all I could about the day to day life of a marine biologist at this institution. It was not easy, and the first time I applied for a PhD program during my junior year of college, in the midst of the pandemic, I was turned away due to lack of spots for that year under the given pandemic circumstances. It was incredibly defeating and I had to learn a hard lesson that no matter how prepared you think you are, sometimes things don’t go how you had it all planned out. Maybe it was not meant to be your path, maybe it is life testing your endurance. Either way, I am not one to sit around and wait for a sign, I decided to take life in my own hands and take control. I wanted this.. I wanted it bad. Not because of Scripps’ reputation, but I believe it was a place where I could help make a difference and connect with people who are working on exactly what I am interested in researching.
If there is one thing I have related to throughout my career so far, it is a famous quote from the scientist Louis Pasteur “Chance favors the prepared mind”. I believe that you work hard and your success is based on your work and preparation, but that one cannot overlook the importance of chance and luck as well. Being in the right place at the right time, and making crucial connections (although they may not seem crucial in the moment) is what has always aided me in my next career steps. I had a random connection through a friend to Dr. Linda W. Kelly, a newer professor at Scripps, who was working on exactly that which interested me, and who I then began working for as a lab technician before advancing my academic career into a PhD. Now my two worlds, that as a marine biologist and that as an explorers club member, are constantly overlapping as I connect to more oceanographic researchers globally.
What I want the world to know is that change is organic and likely in any career path. You will never get to where you are in the direct path you may have expected. Although it is important to stay on track and stay determined, also listen to your surroundings, say yes to opportunities, and see where it takes you. The world all yours for the taking if you’re open to it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am personally a huge fan of the outdoors as well as delicious food, so a perfect weekend for me would include an overindulgence of the two. I have lived in San Diego now for the past five years and although I still have yet to see a lot, I also definitely have some favorite spots. If I had friends visiting me for a long weekend, I would spend one day on the Windansea beach, picking up sandwiches from Wayfarer Bakery in Bird Rock on the way. I would spend the day laying on the sand between the beautiful rocky shores, jumping in the crystal blue waters whenever the sun got just a bit too hot for our liking. “Bring a good book, too” I’d say. I love a good read on the beach. As the sun sets we would go get Oscar’s a small hole in the wall taco shop with the best seafood tacos in town (in my opinion), before heading to the Comedy Store in La Jolla for some fun stand up comedy. Next day I would take my friends on a beautiful hike in Torrey Pines and spend the afternoon getting happy hour drinks and oysters at Ironside, a fish and oyster bar in downtown San Diego. From there we could hop around various cocktail bars and restaurants on the block to get some beautiful custom cocktails and cuisines. For the last day I would bring them to Morning Glory, a beautiful and new hip brunch spot in Little Italy, known to never take reservations and always have a two hour wait period on the weekends (but oh, its worth it). We would spend our last day on a boat cruising around the bay, waterskiing and having a great time, soaking up San Diego’s sun.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The Explorers Club itself deserves all the shoutout it can to the chapter that I now hold near and dear to my heart. When I was younger, I had always heard rumors about this club filled with scientists, researchers, and modern day Indiana Jones’. Being an aspiring scientist myself, I longed to be a part of the club, to be surrounded by people that have been the first to see places, the first to experience or understand the at-the-moment unknown. When I turned eighteen I made a connection with Lisa Sonne, an author and producer, as well as a member of the esteemed Explorers Club, who served as my membership sponsor through my application process. Becoming a member gave me to opportunity to meet some of my idol scientists and make career advancing connections. It was not until after I graduated from the University of San Diego with a marine biology degree that I became truly deeper involved with the southern California chapter. During the pandemic, there had been little interaction within the club due to the lack of in-person gatherings. So, once the pandemic eased and people were eager to get back into the field and chat up their fellow explorers, we felt the need to gather people locally and create a platform and place for people to share their stories and do exactly that. I was asked to serve on an executive committee for the Southern California Chapter alongside many big names in the science world. My role, as a younger member of the chapter, was to bring a fresh outlook on what the newer generation might be looking for as club members and to brainstorm ways to get people of all career levels and fields of study together and involved. Thus, I became the social media and public outreach coordinator for the club and have been doing that ever since while continuing to build my career as a marine biologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

Website: https://explorersclubsocal.com

Instagram: @explorersclub_socal

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bibi-renssen-819bab11a/

Facebook: @TheExplorersClubSoCal

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