International Scientific Organising Committee

Distinguished Professor at the University of Wollongong and Deputy Director Science Implementation for the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative, Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF) Program. She is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, a Faculty member for the Homeward Bound Women’s Leadership Program and an editor for Global Change Biology. She first visited East Antarctica in 1996 and has been on 14 expeditions to continental Antarctic and maritime Antarctic islands with the Australian and Chilean Antarctic programs as well as with Homeward Bound. She is passionate about conserving Antarctica and its biodiversity.

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National Director of Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) and SCAR Vicepresident for Administration

Professor of Glaciology and Polar Geography at UFRGS; Head Brazilian National Institute for Cryospheric Sciences; Full Member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences; Member of the Brazilian National Order of Scientific Merit; Brazilian delegate to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR/ISC); Vice-President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research 2016–2021.

Chandrika has over 15 years’ experience of providing scientific advice to policy makers with the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. She has briefed UK policymakers on a wide range of policy areas spanning environment, energy, security, ICT and international development. Prior to working for Parliament, Chandrika worked as a glaciologist at the British Antarctic Survey from 1998-2002. She has a keen interest in diversity and capacity building and has worked with parliaments and researchers across the world to support uptake of research evidence in policy-making. She has a PhD in High Energy Physics from Oxford University.

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Dr Johanna Grabow earned a MA in British Studies and History from Leipzig University, Germany. Her PhD, also from Leipzig University and with an extended visit to the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, focused on the reception of Antarctica in contemporary British literature. Her PhD was funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, which she now supports as a member of the selection panel. She has published on Antarctica in novels, the linkages between science and literature and ecocriticism.

Johanna works as the Project Officer of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in Cambridge, UK. In her role, she supports SCAR’s mission to initiate, develop and coordinate high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region.

Johanna also serves as the Assistant Editor of the Antarctic Environments Portal, a portal linking Antarctic science and policy, and has a special interest in communication complex scientific concepts to a wide audience. As a polar enthusiast, she has worked seasonally as an expedition guide and lecturer in the Antarctic and the Arctic. Johanna was one of the founding members of the German National Committee of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS).

Researcher at the University of São Paulo – USP, Brazil.

PhD in Environmental Sciences and Master in Geology. She is a Biologist and Geographer who works with research and management of research projects in the area of Geosciences and Environmental Sciences in cooperation with international institutions. She develops research in the area of Geosciences and Climate Change. Currently she is the Scientific Coordinator of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists – Brazilian Committee (APECS Brazil).

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Her research focuses on the geology and geophysics of the Polar continental margins, using marine seismic reflection profiles and morphobathymetric data, integrated with sediment cores for investigating the glacial environment, at present time and in the past (millennia and millions of years). Co-chief of the International Ocean Discovery Project (IODP) 2018 Expedition 374 (Ross Sea, Antarctica) and PI of several PNRA projects. Italian chief representative at the SCAR (Scientific Committee for the Antarctic Research) Geoscience Scientific Group

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Professor Thulani Makhalanyane graduated from the University of the Western Cape with an MSc (cum laude) (2009) and a PhD (2013).

After completing his doctoral studies, he moved to the University of Pretoria (UP) where his research has focused almost entirely on understanding the ecology of microbial communities in extreme environments. These habitats include soil microbial communities in the Antarctic Dry Valleys, the Namib Desert and increasingly in South African regions such as the Southern Ocean.

Siti Aisyah Alias is a Malaysian mycologist and Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Universiti Malaya. Since January 2023, she has been the Director of the National Antarctic Research Centre (NARC) Malaysia. Her scientific research fields include fungal biodiversity of marine fungi and polar soil fungi, antimicrobial activity and cold-adapted enzymes, and biochemistry of polar microbes.

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Principal Research Scientist Adjunct Professor

Korea Polar Research Institute, KIOST/ University of Science and Technology 

Florence is a paleoclimate and ice sheet modeler at the Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) in Trieste. Her research focuses on the evolution of ice sheets under different climatic mean states from the past to the future at different timescales. She has been investigating ice sheets evolution and feedback with the climate system in both Northern and Southern Hemispheres. She is part of the EuroPolarNet 2 expert group about Arctic changes where she represents Italian Antarctic research. Florence is the co-chief officer of the new SCAR scientific research program INSTANT – Instabilities and Thresholds in Antarctica, the Antarctic contribution to sea level change.

Professor of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. Her main research interests are in political and environmental philosophy, and ethics. Her work has focused on the foundations of basic human rights and global justice (see The Right of Necessity), and on the justification of territorial rights and rights over natural resources. Mancilla is a member of the steering committee of the Standing Committee of the Humanities & Social Sciences, Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR SC-HASS).

Daniela Liggett is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. She is a social scientist with a background in environmental management, Antarctic politics and tourism research. Her research interests include the modalities of the various forms of human engagement with the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic, the governance of human activity in polar environments and the complexities of Antarctic values and conservation.