21 May 2022

Professor Craig Cary: exploring extreme bacteria in Antarctica

From Saturday Morning, 10:06 am on 21 May 2022
Craig Cary

Photo: Supplied

A robot that can sample planktonic communities under the Antarctic ice shelf is the latest tool developed by Professor Craig Cary and his colleagues to help forecast the future impacts of climate change. 

A microbial ecologist, Cary has studied bacteria in the world's most extreme environments, including deep sea hydrothermal vents and our own geothermal areas. He is the director of the International Centre for Terrestrial Antarctic Research at the University of Waikato, and has clocked up 22 deployments to Antarctica looking at the continent’s bioscience - from what is in the soil and ice, to examining penguin guano. 

Cary is currently conducting work on Mount Erebus and remote North Victoria Land.