There's a downside to being one of Australia's top scientists. It means field trips where there are no fields, and temperatures drop way below freezing. There is no shower or change of clothes for six weeks.
There are blizzards. Subscribe now for unlimited access . $ 0 / (min cost $ 0 ) Login or signup to continue reading Continue with Email Continue with Google Continue with Apple See subscription options But there's an upside, too: the "intense beauty" of the Antarctic landscape in which Professor Nerilie Abram of the ANU spent three months, split in two to take the trip to a marginally less remote camp for the shower.
She's just become a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science , "elected by their peers for ground-breaking research and contributions that have had clear impact". Nerilie Abram. Picture by Gary Ramage Nerilie Abram on site.
Picture supplied Her work as Professor of Climate Science at the ANU takes her to the frozen south to drill into the ice of the Denman Glacier which, if it were to melt, would raise the level of the sea by one-and-a-half metres. Of Australia's big cities, only Canberra would be untouched by a rise of water of that scale. There's a moment of 'What am I doing here? Am I going to do this? But after that there's the intense beauty.
- Nerilie Abram She and her team of three others were landed by a small plane on skis with their camping gear at the start of the Antarctic summer. "There's always the moment when you get dropped on the ice, and .
