Meet Mike Williams

Meet Mike Williams

What is your job title?

Physical Oceanographer.

What do you study and why is it important?

The main focus of my work is on the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, and the role they play in climate. Both the Southern Ocean and Antarctica play important roles in global climate.

What will you be doing on the voyage?

Although not on the voyage, I am the NIWA scientist who is leading the oceanography. When the ship returns I will be analysing the mooring and CTD data.

Where were you educated?

I did my first two degrees in maths at Otago University in Dunedin where I grew up. Then I moved to Hobart in Australia to do a PhD in oceanography at the University of Tasmania.

How did you become interested in the ocean?

I’m not really sure. I used to play on the beach and sail a lot when I was a kid, but the big change was when I did an oceanography course at university, then I thought this is cool, and have been at it ever since.

Do you get seasick? And if so, any tips on how not to?

Yes, I expect to feel sick for the first few days. What seems to help are good drugs, crackers, water, and lying down!

What do you enjoy about your work?

The variety! I get to work in a great range of places, like on research ship, on Antarctic sea ice, as well as having an office with a great view. I also get to work on different things, like why seabirds forage where they do, why does ice grow like it does, and how does the Southern Ocean influence New Zealand climate?

What are some of the challenges you face?

At sea the biggest challenges for me are being able to concentrate, to sleep, and not being bored. In good weather sleep is easy, but when it’s rough and you have to shove a pillow under your mattress to stop yourself falling out of bed its hard. I also find my brain only works at about half speed, so stuff just takes longer. Not being bored is really only a problem when its too rough to work, then you’ve got a whole shift to kill and not much to do it with.

What have you learned/discovered? What do you hope to learn?

What I hope to get out of this trip is all our gear back. Last year we put nine mooring into the water, and they have been sitting there for a year. If we get them all back I hope to have enough information to tell how much water flows in the northern most branch of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. This doesn’t sound like much for such a lot of effort, but it creates another jigsaw piece in the puzzle that explains how the Southern Ocean helps influence our climate.

How do you spend your spare time?

I’d like to have some. I have a young family and a house in need of some work, so I spend time playing with my kids or working on my house. Before a house and kids I used to do a fair bit of climbing, and mountain biking.

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