Robert Morris-Nunn AM

Robert Morris-Nunn is regarded as one of Tasmania’s most adventurous and respected architects. He has practiced in Tasmania for over 25 years, taking a special interest in the social impact of architecture and collaborative design processes that often integrate innovative structural ideas.Principal design architect at Circa Morris-Nunn, his most recent projects include the Saffire Resort on Tasmania’s Freycinet Peninsula, the redevelopment of the IXL Henry Jones Art Hotel, and Mac01 on Hobart’s waterfront. He is the most awarded architect in Tasmania, and his work has been illustrated in numerous national and international publications. 

Dr Frederique Olivier

Dr Frederique Olivier has 20 years experience in Antarctic wildlife ecology and behaviour. She is also a wildlife cinematographer and has spent two winters in Antarctica researching and documenting Emperor Penguins for award-winning BBC documentaries, as well as several summers filming Adélie Penguins for BBC and Disney. She has much sought-after skills in the application of robotics in wildlife cinematography, including using penguin cams. Frederique was part of the Spy In The Wild team nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography: Documentary 2018.

Dr Patti Virtue AAM

Dr Patti Virtue is a marine scientist and an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania and CSIRO. She has been involved in many Antarctic expeditions undertaking research with her students and colleagues. Her research incorporates aspects of biological oceanography, sea ice ecology, and studies on zooplankton particularly krill, which form the basis of the Antarctic marine food chain. Working in such a precious environment such as Antarctica, Patti is all too aware that micro plastics (the size of krill food) pose an insidious threat to fragile marine ecosystems.

Prof Sharon Robinson AM

Sharon is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Wollongong. Sharon Robinson researches how Antarctic plants respond to climate change. She uses radiocarbon signatures, left behind in the atmosphere by nuclear testing, to date mosses and track environmental change around the coast of Antarctica. Her group identifies the sunscreens plants make to protect themselves from elevated UV-B radiation due to ozone depletion. She is also applying new technologies, including the use of drones in Antarctica, to monitor plant health and productivity, and developing novel sensors that will help to track crop and forest health in future. She is Dean of Researcher Development and Integrity and the Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Securing Antarctic Environmental Future (SAEF).

Prof Steven Chown FAA

Prof Steven L Chown is the Director of the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Securing Antarctic Environmental Future (SAEF). He is a past President of ICSU’s Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the past head of the School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. Much of his research career has been focused on the biological impacts of the major global change drivers, including climate change and biological invasions. He has a substantial focus on the sub-Antarctic and Antarctic.  Steven has played a major role in the transfer of scientific knowledge into the Antarctic Treaty System. In 2010, Steven won the inaugural and prestigious Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica.

Stephen Curtain

Stephen Curtain is a cinematographer and film producer with a focus on nature, Antarctica and outdoors. He has worked for the BBC Natural History Unit. His film, ‘Winter Dreaming—an Australian backcountry ski film’ won the Telemark category, Living Film Festival, Italy 2009. Additionally he has 15+ year experience in outdoor eduction and guiding. He specialises in teaching environmental science, science, well being, resilience, collaboration, self esteem and sustainability.

Prof Euan Ritchie

Prof Euan Ritchie is a Professor, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Deakin University, Australia. He is an applied ecologist focused on conserving Australian and global biodiversity. His interests are wide, spanning behavioural, community, evolutionary, landscape and population ecology, and conservation biology. He is an avid science communicator writing widely and appears often on our radio and tv as a reliable source of conservation science.

Dr Catherine King

Dr Cath King is a leading researcher in Antarctic environmental toxicology and contaminated site risk assessment. She is a Principal Research Scientist, at the Australian Antarctic Division and has over 30 years’ experience in the fields of aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment. As an international leader in Antarctic environmental science, she has contributed to evidenced-based decision making in policy, environmental management and operational developments both for the Australian Antarctic Program, and internationally within the Antarctic Treaty.

Danelle Bergstrom

Danelle Bergstrom is an award Australian visual artist known for both evocative landscapes and portraits of significant Australians. Her works reveal a dynamic and painterly vision of the land that fluctuates between representation and abstraction. She exhibits and lives between Australia and northern Europe. Her work in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. Danelle’s attraction to ice and snow developed through dog sledging across Lappland and works between Australia and the Åland Archipelago, Finland.

Dugald McLaren

Dugald McLaren is a multi-platform songwriter, artist, designer and inventor based in Hobart, Tasmania. He has wintered as an electrician at Australia’s Casey Research Station, and also spent a summer season on Macquarie Island. Expeditioners working out of field huts across the islands have enjoyed safe, reliable and mostly green power for last 20 years from his designed and built, remote area power supply modules (RAPS). He is the songwriter of Antarctica, a New Musical, which premiered in Hobart in 2016. He recently received a Tasmania Arts Grant to develop this work further as a podcast, entitled Antarctica, Beneath the Storm.