verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2009 learn how and when to remove this template message quark expeditions founded 1991 headquarters seattle united states key people hans lagerweij ceo services passenger transportation parent tui travel website www.quarkexpeditions.com quark expeditions was founded in 1991 by lars wikander and mike mcdowell specializing in expeditions to the arctic and antarctic aboard purpose built expedition vessels . in 1998 lars wikander became the majority owner of the company . three years later lars became chairman of the board when patrick shaw joined the company as president and chief executive officer . on may 1 2007 quark expeditions became part of the uk based tui travel plc group of companies . hans lagerweij is the current president and ceo of quark expeditions . the company have recently been featured in popular culture with an expedition involving internet personalities and youtube creators including ben brown lead by retired canadian astronaut chris hadfield in an arctic expedition . 1 contents 1 polar fleet 2 quark firsts 3 recognitions 4 references 5 external links polar fleet edit quark expeditions ship sea adventurer weighs anchor to depart from griffin inlet beechey island nunavut in the canadian high arctic . quark s arctic fleet includes the polar class icebreaker the nuclear powered 50 years of victory . purpose built to navigate the frozen waters of the russian arctic . the icebreaker is equipped with helicopters and zodiacs enabling travel to remote locations that other vessels in the arctic can not including the north pole . quark has the largest and most diverse fleet of passenger vessels in the antarctic including the sea spirit an all suite ship and the ocean diamond offering the first carbon neutral voyages in polar travel history . the fleet enables quark to operate the widest variety of polar itineraries of any other adventure company in the world and the greatest number of departures to antarctica . quark firsts edit august 1991 first ever tourism transit of the northeast passage the historic route across the russian arctic november 1992 quark offers first non scientific visits to emperor penguin rookeries november 1997 first circumnavigation of antarctica for commercial passengers completed july 1999 first circumnavigation of the arctic ocean 2004 quark first to confirm most northerly emperor penguin rookery near snow hill in the weddell sea antarctica june 2008 quark offers maiden voyage on nuclear icebreaker 50 years of victory to the north pole april 2011 three arctic islands trip voted one of national geographic traveler s 50 tours of a lifetime november 2012 quark launches first ever carbonneutral voyages to antarctica aboard ocean diamond 2 february 2013 quark hosts jonathan shackleton ernest shackleton s cousin and falcon scott robert falcon scott s grandson as they walk and camp on 7th continent together november 2013 quark teams with hot docs to offer the first ever floating polar film festival on board the sea spirit 3 recognitions edit 2013 world travel awards world s leading polar expedition operator 4 2013 amadeus and world travel market travel experience awards blow the budget 5 2013 travel weekly s magellan award eco friendly cruise ship for the carbon neutral program aboard all of the ocean diamond s antarctic voyages 6 2013 travel weekly s magellan award tour operator advertising marketing campaign 7 2013 travel weekly s magellan award tour operator promotional marketing video 2013 wanderlust s 50 best trips of 2013 falklands south georgia and antarctica via buenos aires explorers and kings voyage 8 2012 travel weekly s magellan award tour operator promotional marketing video 9 2011 national geographic traveler u.s. 50 tours of a lifetime three arctic islands iceland greenland spitsbergen voyage 10 in october 2006 and 2007 quark was named a recipient of national geographic traveler s 50 tours of a lifetime for their emperor penguin safari and the far side respectively . 11 in the march 2006 edition outside magazine named the emperor penguin safari as one of the new trips of a lifetime . 12 references edit brown ben . arctic expedition . youtube . http www.adventuretravelnews.com quark expeditions offers first carbon neutral voyages in polar travel history http www.hotdocs.ca media press releases quark expeditions rolls out red carpet for polar film festival http www.worldtravelawards.com award worlds leading polar expedition operator 2013 archived copy . archived from the original on october 18 2014 . retrieved october 9 2014 . http www.travelweeklyawards.com winners list l & pagenum winners 1 & totalrows winners 63 & event 6 & category 1 & award s http www.travelweeklyawards.com winners list event 6 & category 8 & award s http www.wanderlust.co.uk planatrip inspire me lists 50 best trips for 2013 page all http www.travelweeklyawards.com winners list event 5 & category 8 & award s http travel.nationalgeographic.com travel tours europe tours 2011 http traveler.nationalgeographic.com 2007 10 tours of a lifetime text http www.outsideonline.com adventure travel europe iceland 123404008.html external links edit company website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title quark expeditions & oldid 740772157 categories travel and holiday companies of the united statesexpedition cruisingcruise lineshidden categories articles needing additional references from december 2009all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload 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