Andrew Meijers

PhD Student, University of Tasmania and CSIRO, Australia

I'm a 24 year old native Taswegian, and am currently working on my PhD project at the University of Tasmania and the CSIRO Marine labs. I've always loved the ocean and water; being out on it, under it, or just watching it, and so it was inevitable that I ended up studying it too!

My undergraduate degrees were in maths and physics, as well as Antarctic studies, and eventually lead to my current physical oceanography PhD study on the variability of Southern Ocean water masses. Although my project is largely data based and doesn't really require field work, I try to grab the opportunities to broaden my oceanographic horizons a bit and take part in research cruises such as SIPEX. This will be my second research voyage to Antarctica, the first was BROKE-West in 2006 where we studied the hydrography and ocean circulation off a broad region of East Antarctica.

My job on this voyage will be as part of the oceanography team. We will be making CTD and ADCP measurements; essentially determining the ocean temperature, salinity and velocity structure beneath each of the ice stations. Sea ice hydrography is rarely done in Antarctica, and we are looking forward to seeing what is happening beneath the surface during sea ice maximum.

If I don't get enough of the ocean during my work, I like to go swimming and snorkeling in my spare time, as well as playing underwater hockey whenever I can. I also enjoy getting out and about in the bush, either hiking or mountain biking, and most weekends you can find me out on the roads cycling too!