Core Members
NZ YSC Regional Representatives
Melianie Raymond (Chair)
PhD Student, University of Otago, New Zealand
Melianie completed her undergraduate studies in Zoology at the Universities of Otago, New Zealand and Copenhagen, Denmark, during which she became interested in Polar Biology. She is currently studying towards her PhD, focusing on the adaptations that enable Antarctic nematodes to survive intracellular freezing. Her field work has taken her to Cape Hallett supported by a Kelly Tarlton' s and Antarctica New Zealand scholarship, and to Gondwana Station this season as part of Antarctica New Zealand's event K066. She is the chair of the NZ YSC, and the Antarctic chair of the International YSC.
Shelley MacDonell (Media and Communications)
PhD Student, University of Otago, New Zealand
Shelley is a glaciologist working in the Geography Department at the University of Otago. Shelley is currently working on her PhD, which focuses on the hydrological regime of a cold-based glacier. Her field site is the Wright Lower Glacier, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, where she has spent the last three summers collecting meltwater and measuring ablation stakes. The 2006/07 field season is Shelley's fifth in Antarctica, with her other field experience including building tunnels into glaciers, dragging around a ground-penetrating radar and monitoring glacier velocity. Her work has been supported by the Sir Robin Irvine Antarctica NZ scholarship.
Michael Gonsior
PhD Student, University of Otago, New Zealand
Present research is focused on aquatic biogeochemistry. In particular, dissolved organic carbon plays an important role in global carbon cycling involving sunlight induced breakdown of terrestrial derived organic matter (soil leachate). The transformation of the light absorbing component (coloured) of this dissolved organic matter (DOM) in freshwater-seawater interfaces is dramatic and indicates that enhanced UV-B radiation, due to ozone depletion, may lead to higher photodegradation (destruction) of this chromophoric (coloured) dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Research is underway in different freshwater-seawater mixing environments such as Fiordland, Doubtful Sound and the Fresh Water River, Stewart Island.
Daniela Haase (Funding and Treasurer)
PhD student at Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Daniela completed her BSc in Management at the Otto-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany, in 2003 and received her MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Manchester in the following year. Her Master's thesis analysed the potential for ecotourism development in a Honduran cloud forest. She is currently pursuing a PhD at Gateway Antarctica working on a project that investigates the effectiveness and adequacy of the current regulatory regime for Antarctic tourism. Her research interests include tourism management and environmental impact of tourism in extreme environments and Antarctic policy issues.
Bettina Kaiser (Education Coordinator)
PhD Student at the School of Culture, Literature, and Society, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Bettina gained her B.A. in Philosophy from Leeds University (U.K.) and her M.A. in Philosophy, American Studies and English at Humboldt University, Berlin (Germany). Currently, she completes her PhD project on New Zealand nineteenth-century colonial history at the University of Canterbury. She is particularly fascinated by the analysis of communicative patterns that structure peopleÕs daily routine and by the nineteenth-century historical perspective on the Arctic and Antarctic. Bettina combines these two interests in her studies on the nineteenth-century communicative culture of New Zealand and America.
Kim Senger (Frozen Five Liaison)
BSc(Hons) Student, University of Otago, New Zealand
Kim is scheduled to complete his undergraduate studies in Geology at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in October 2006. Originally from the Czech Republic, Kim has spent all of 2005 at the University of Svalbard, the world's northernmost campus in the land of a half-year long midnight sun and plenty of polar bears. His BSc(Hons) dissertation deals with the occurrence of gas hydrates offshore New Zealand, with special focus on hydrate-related slope instability. In 2007, Kim will be heading back to the Arctic as part of the 2-month long Frozen Five expedition and decide his future plans.
Sarah Rynbeck (Auckland Regional Rep.)
PGDipSci Biological Sciences, University of Auckland
Sarah is 20 years old and is doing her PGDipSci this year in biological sciences with a marine specialization (marine biology) at the University of Auckland. She has been interested in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean for as long as she can remember, and her main interests are in fish physiology and cold adaptations. She has just completed the GCAS course at Canterbury Uni and spent two weeks in Antarctica over Christmas. She has also traveled to the Sub-Antarctic Islands in 2004 after receiving a scholarship from the Spirit of Enderby Trust. She also loves diving and sailing both recreationally and competitively.
Angela McGaughran (Palmerston North Regional Rep.)
PhD Student, Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University, New Zealand
Angela gained her BSc in biology at the University of Waikato, where she subsequently gained her MSc in genetic patterns of New Zealand and Antarctic arthropods. She is now located at Massey University in Palmerston North, where she is working towards her PhD. Her main focus is 'polar evolution' and this encompasses investigation into life history (e.g. metabolic energy budgets) and genetic parameters of populations of Antarctic springtails and mites. Her academic career has seen her working in Wright and Victoria Valleys in Antarctica for her MSc, and she is currently preparing for a two month stint at Cape Bird for the 2006/2007 season; a Kelly Tarlton's scholarship has provided support for both trips south.
Dhiresh Hansaraj (Wellington Regional Rep.)
MSc Student, Antartctic Research Centre, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Dhiresh is an MSc student in Geology/Geophysics. His thesis focuses on is mapping Pliocene-Pleistocene seismic sequences in the Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica. The project aims to determine the glacial history of the region over the past 5 million years, especially the sedimentary response to climatically-induced fluctuations in the Ross Ice Shelf and adjacent ice sheets. The project will contribute to the multinational ANtarctic Geological DRILLing Program (ANDRILL) whose research aim is to determine past ice shelf responses to climate forcing.
