Explorers Club member and Miami ophthalmologist Stan Spielman treats the Amazon's Cat People. Photo / Margaretha Spielman

On Jan. 23 the Southern Florida chapter of The Explorers Club will hold its next monthly meeting in Fort Lauderdale.

Dr. Kenneth Broad will speak about his cave diving expeditions to the blue holes of the Bahamas, which were featured in National Geographic’s August cover. In particular, he will describe his findings for the fields of microbiology, paleontology and climate science. Additionally, he will discuss lessons from cave exploration in terms of risk perception.

Broad is an environmental anthropologist who studies the relationship between humans and their environment. He is an associate professor at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and is director of the university’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science. He also co-directs the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1999.

The meeting will be held at Tropical Acres Restaurant with the cash bar opening at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 6:30 with the lecture to follow. Charge for this event is $35 per person. To make a reservation or for more details, e-mail Beth Jones.

The Explorers Club, founded in 1904, is an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception the club, which is headquartered in New York, has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. The club’s members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts, such as first to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the moon.