Piers Gibbon

Piers Gibbon studied Human Sciences at Oxford University (Social Anthropology, Human Ecology, Demography). His final year thesis on Plant Use in Tribal Societies became the basis for an hour-long documentary on Channel Four - Jungle Trip. This followed him on a journey from Kew Gardens (where there is already a plant with his name on the label) to the Amazon to study the ayahuasca ceremony with mestizo shamans around Iquitos and Pucallpa. He also stayed with the Matses tribe where he was put through an ordeal with frog poison and took part in a blowgun competition. He has given lectures on his experiences in the Amazon to the London School of Economics, Bath University and ethnobotanical conferences in Australia and Belgium. He has also presented a six-part TV series on historical food and written and narrated over two hundred hours of science, natural history and adventure documentaries for broadcasters worldwide including the BBC, Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic. He presented a TV documentary, titled 'Headhunters of the Amazon', about the headshrinking traditions of the Shuar people of Ecuador, which was aired on Channel Five in May 2009, and then the National Geographic worldwide. He has been Sony nominated for his radio interview work and is also a regular moderator at conferences worldwide.