On January 24, 2012 the National Geographic Society named MAI’s Francisco Estrada-Belli among its Explorers.
Among National Geographic Explorers also figure oceanographer Robert Ballard, discoverer of the Titanic, primatologist Jane Googall, paleoanthropologist Lee Burger, author Jared Damond (Guns, Germs and Steel), egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass and many other distinguished scholars in the fields of conservation, biology and zoology.
Estrada-Belli is one among 13 archaeology explorers. He is the only Mayanist and the only Guatemalan in the NatGeo list.