Gateway Antarctica

I am an Assistant Lecturer at the School of Earth and Environment of the University of Canterbury. I teach remote sensing for Earth observation and geospatial analysis using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and multispectral optical imagery. My research involves radar signal processing for Earth observation and biological applications and radar instrumentation.

Professor Anne-Marie Brady FRSNZ is a specialist on the Chinese Communist Party (domestic politics and foreign policy), polar politics, Pacific politics, and New Zealand foreign policy. She is a fluent Mandarin Chinese speaker. She is founding and executive editor of The Polar Journal (Taylor and Francis Publishers). She has published ten books and over fifty sole-authored scholarly papers. She has written more than 60 opeds on her research for newspapers such as the New York Times, The Guardian, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, The Financial Times, The Diplomat. In addition to her duties at the University of Canterbury, Professor Brady holds a number of honorary roles. She was a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington DC from 2014 to 2025. In 2014 she was appointed to a two-year term on the World Economic Forum's Global Action Council on the Arctic. She is an advisor to the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC). 

Professor Brady's books include Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008), Looking North, Looking South: China, Taiwan and the South Pacific (World Scientific, 2010); China's Thought Management (Routledge, 2012), The Emerging Politics of Antarctica (Routledge, 2013), China as a Polar Great Power (Cambridge University Press and Wilson Press, 2017), and Small States and the Changing Global Order: New Zealand Faces the Future (Springer, 2019). Her 2017 conference paper 'Magic Weapons: China's foreign influence activities under Xi Jinping' helped to spark a global conversation on China's foreign interference and espionage activities, as well as legislative change. Professor Brady's groundbreaking, policy-relevant, research demonstrates the important role of the academic as "critic and conscience" in a modern democracy. 

I am a remote sensing scientist specializing in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and LiDAR to investigate how surface processes contribute to observable environmental change. My research spans glaciology, fluvial geomorphology, and oceanography, with applications in Antarctica, Patagonia, and New Zealand. I have worked extensively on ice-ocean interactions, glacier velocity dynamics, fjords and river systems, integrating SAR, optical, and LiDAR datasets to analyze surface evolution. Currently, my focus is on using airborne LiDAR and satellite-based remote sensing to study braided river geomorphology and glacier dynamics in New Zealand. My work also explores the fusion of high-resolution SAR data with optical satellite imagery and machine learning to quantify long-term environmental change. Beyond research, I actively engage in science communication and mentoring, contributing to university teaching and international collaborations in Earth observation and environmental monitoring.

Prof Bronwyn Hayward (MNZM, FRSNZ) is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director of The Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research group. Her research is at the intersection of sustainability, youth, climate change and democracy. Bronwyn has held many Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change roles:  a Review Editor (AR7 Ciites special report)  AR6 (Synthesis report 2023) Coordinating lead Cities & infrastructure (2022) and a lead author of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5 Degrees C (2018). She is co-primary investigator with University of Surrey's ESRC funded CUSP: Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity, where she leads the CYCLES Children and Youth in Cities lifestyle Evaluation study in 7 world cities. A Co-PI of the National Science Challenge Mana Rangatahi, supporting Indigenous young people facing climate change (2022-2025). She held an Erskine Fellowship with University College, Oxford, UK 2017. Recent books Children, Citizenship and Environment (Routledge, 2012 and a significantly revised second #SchoolStrike edition Routledge London, 2021 and Sea Change: Climate Politics and New Zealand (BWB, 2017). She served on the International Social Sciences Council steering committee - Transformative Research; Co-researcher with University of Oslo, Voices of the Future project; Lead author on UNEP's global survey of 18-35 year olds lifestyles and sustainabilityl Trustee for the UK Foundation for Democracy and Sustainability 2012-2016. Outside academia Bronwyn worked for children's TV; was a Ministerial appointment to the NZ Broadcasting Standards Authority; Trustee for the SPARK Foundation & Give A Little. She was inaugural joint winner of UC Arts Conscience & Critic of Society Research Award 2014, Kiwibank Local Hero (2019) Westpac/Stuff media winner of Supreme Woman of Influence & Environment categories (2022), She is co-convenor of Adaptation Futures 2025 the world's premiere climate adaptation event October 2025

Craig Herbold is a microbial ecologist with interests that span evolution, diversity, and ecological roles of microorganisms using genome-resolved metagenomics. He teaches and mentors students in evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, and microbial genomics through the integration of theoretical knowledge with hands-on learning.

Professor Daniela Liggett is a social scientist in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Canterbury, specialising in Antarctic environmental governance, polar tourism, and human–environment interactions in extreme environments. Her research examines how people engage with the polar regions, how operational and policy decisions are made, how researchers and policy-makers interact, and how Antarctic governance frameworks function now and into the future.

Daniela’s work spans Antarctic conservation and environmental governance, tourism regulation, science‑policy knowledge exchange, and decision‑making in extreme environments. She co‑chairs the World Meteorological Organization’s Polar Coupled Analysis and Prediction for Services (PCAPS) project and serves as a Chief Officer of SCAR’s Ant‑ICON programme, which focuses on integrated science to inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean conservation.

Her research is highly collaborative and transdisciplinary, bringing together scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholder groups to address complex questions about Antarctic futures, environmental values, and the governance of human activity in polar regions. Daniela is also Head of School (Earth and Environment) and supervises postgraduate research across all areas of her expertise in the polar social sciences.

Due to existing supervision commitments, Daniela is unable to consider new applications to undertake a PhD under her supervision until December 2028.  She appreciates your understanding.