Thor Heyerdahl
Born in Larvik in Southern Norway in 1914, Thor Heyerdahl was originally a student in zoology and in 1936 he travelled with his wife to the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific to study their wildlife. However, he was soon more concerned withthe issue of how these islands were originally populated. The consensus was that Polynesia was populated from the west, but Heyerdahl noticed that the prevailing winds winds and currents ran from east to west so its peoples could have travelled across the sea from South America.

In 1947 he mounted the Kon-Tiki Expedition to prove that this was possible, using a copy of the balsawood floats used by the South American Indians in ancient times. This adventure was followed by many more expeditions: trips to the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island; voyages in the Ra I, Ra II and Tigris; and trips to the Maldives, Easter Island again and then Peru.

Heyerdahl died in 2002.