The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south. It is claimed by New Zealand. Since the Antarctic Treaty came into force in 1961, Article IV of which states: "No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica", most countries do not recognise territorial claims in Antarctica.
The Ross Sea is a deep bay of the Southern Ocean in Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land and within the Ross Embayment, and is the southernmost sea on Earth. It derives its name from the British explorer James Ross who visited this area in 1841. To the west of the sea lies Ross Island and Victoria Land, to the east Roosevelt Island and Edward VII Peninsula in Marie Byrd Land, while the southernmost part is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, and is about 200 miles (320 km) from the South Pole. Its boundaries and area have been defined by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research as having an area of 637,000 square kilometres (246,000 sq mi).
Roosevelt Island is the second largest ice rise of Antarctica and world-wide, after Berkner Island. Despite its name, it is not an island, since the bedrock below the ice at its highest part is below sea level. It is about 130 km (81 mi) long in a NW-SE direction, 65 km (40 mi) wide and about 7,500 km2 (2,896 sq mi) in area, lying under the eastern part of the Ross Ice Shelf of Antarctica. Its central ridge rises to about 550 m (1,804 ft) above sea level, but this and all other elevations of the ice rise are completely covered by ice, so that it is invisible at ground level.
Timothy Raymond Naish is a New Zealand glaciologist and climate scientist who has been a researcher and lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington and the Director of the Antarctic Research Centre, and in 2020 became a programme leader at the Antarctic Science Platform. Naish has researched and written about the possible effect of melting ice sheets in Antarctica on global sea levels due to high CO2 emissions causing warming in the Southern Ocean. He was instrumental in establishing and leading the Antarctica Drilling Project (ANDRILL), and a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (2014).
ANDRILL is a scientific drilling project in Antarctica gathering information about past periods of global warming and cooling.
The natural history of New Zealand began when the landmass Zealandia broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana in the Cretaceous period. Before this time, Zealandia shared its past with Australia and Antarctica. Since this separation, the New Zealand biota and landscape has evolved in near-isolation. The exclusively natural history of the country ended in about 1300 AD, when humans first settled, and the country's environmental history began. The period from 1300 AD to today coincides with the extinction of many of New Zealand's unique species that had evolved there.
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) is a now-defunct government science agency in New Zealand, founded in 1926 and broken into Crown Research Institutes in 1992.
The Antarctic Research Centre (ARC) is part of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington. Its mission is to research "Antarctic climate history and processes, and their influence on the global climate system. The current director of the Antarctic Research Centre is Associate Professor Robert McKay.
Peter John Barrett is a New Zealand geologist who came to prominence after discovering the first tetrapod fossils in Antarctica in 1967.
Nerilie Abram is a professor at the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. Her areas of expertise are in climate change and paleoclimatology, including the climate of Antarctica, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and impacts on the climate of Australia.
Christina Riesselman is an American paleoceanographer whose research focus is on Southern Ocean response to changing climate.
Christina Hulbe is an American Antarctic researcher, and as of 2016 serves as professor and Dean of Surveying at the University of Otago in New Zealand. She was previously Chair of the Geology Department at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She leads the NZARI project to drill through the Ross Ice Shelf and is the namesake of the Hulbe glacier.
Victoria Metcalf is an Antarctic researcher based in New Zealand, best known for her work on Antarctic fishes and invertebrates. She was awarded the 2006 Zonta Science Award.
Rosemary Anne Askin, also known as Rosemary Askin Cully, is a New Zealand geologist specialising in Antarctic palynology. She was a trailblazer for women in Antarctic science, becoming the first New Zealand woman to undertake her own research programme in Antarctica in 1970.
Laura Crispini is an Italian geologist and an Antarctic researcher. Her areas of expertise are for the Tectonics, Geodynamics and Geological Mapping including the Geology of Antarctica. She has been nominated among 150 International representative of female Antarctic researchers for the SCAR "Celebration of Women in Antarctic Research" wikibomb event. At present she is Professor at the University of Genoa at the Department for Earth Sciences, Envinronment and life (DISTAV).
The Prime Minister's Science Prizes are awarded yearly by the Prime Minister of New Zealand. They were first awarded in 2009 in order to raise the profile and prestige of science among New Zealanders. The 2019 awards were presented in early 2020.
Gabby O'Connor is an Australian Installation Artist based in Wellington, New Zealand.
Natalie Robinson, an Antarctic researcher, is based at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand. She led the final two K131 Science Events on the sea ice of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica.
Richard Levy is a New Zealand glacial stratigrapher and paleoclimatologist with expertise in microfossil analysis. As a principal scientist at GNS Science he has been involved in international and New Zealand environmental research programmes focussing on the evolution of the Earth's climate and building an understanding of the role of greenhouse gases in causing anthropogenic climate changes, in particular those impacting global sea levels. He has had extensive experience in scientific drilling, leading major projects, including the ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL) Program in Antarctica. Since 2018, Levy has co-led the government funded NZ SeaRise programme.
Robert McKay is a paleoceanographer who specialises in sedimentology, stratigraphy and palaeoclimatology, specifically gathering geological evidence to study how marine-based portions of the Antarctic ice sheet behave in response to abrupt climate and oceanic change. He has been involved in examination of marine sedimentary records and glacial deposits to show melting and cooling in Antarctica over the past 65 million years and how this has influenced global sea levels and climate. This has helped climate change scientists overcome uncertainty about how the ice sheets will respond to global warming and how this can be managed effectively in the 21st century. He has participated in international projects including ANDRILL and the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), led major New Zealand government-funded research teams and has received several awards in recognition of his work. Since 2012 McKay has been an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington and from 2019, Director of the Antarctic Research Centre.
