Photo of Nawrath deploying an expendable bathythermograph (XBT) to measure water temperature
There is something about a maritime environment that draws in a variety of people. This voyage is no different. For the science crew, going to sea is an infrequent experience or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the crew, this is their norm. So many pathways can lead you here, so one of the questions that I find myself asking everyone is “How did you end up on this voyage?”
I hope to share several people’s journey to working on an Antarctic research vessel. In this letter I will be doing a short profile of a fellow scientist.
Katie Nawrath, Biogeochemist
Katie Nawrath is studying biogeochemistry onboard the Nuyina. Her story starts with growing up near the ocean in Queensland, Australia. Her path to marine science wasn’t straightforward though. Originally, she completed a degree in physiotherapy. She practiced it for 5 years, but her heart was never in it.
In what she described as “a sideways move,” she worked as a game tester for Survivor in Fiji. She said that that job “fulfilled her need to be next to the ocean.” The job ended in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, and she moved back to Queensland and started practicing physiotherapy again. During that time, she took a free, six-month online course from University of Tasmania on Antarctic and Climate Science. The coursework covered climate science and marine science, but she found the later the more interesting. At that point, she decided to move to Tasmania to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Marine and Antarctic Science.
In her third year, she was enrolled in a course called Oceanographic Methods that included sailing on a short transit voyage from Fremantle to Hobart after the Multidisciplinary Investigations of the Southern Oceanvoyage last year. Since I was a scientist on the same voyage, Katie and I could have crossed paths last March on the wharf in Fremantle. On the transit voyage, the students learned oceanographic sampling methods like taking CTDs (Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth measurements) and practicing sampling water.
Katie also worked in a lab washing glassware like vials and beakers for upcoming field work. One day, her boss offered her the opportunity to complete an Honors project that would include participating in the two-month Denman Marine Voyage beginning in March. In Australia, an Honors is a year-long project after finishing a bachelor’s degree. It is often a precursor to a PhD. She accepted the offer and is working on a project comparing the productivity and carbon export in the eastern side versus the western side of the Denman Iceglacier Tongue, a floating extension of the eponymous glacier, which is melting from the bottom up and is susceptible to marine ice sheet instability due to warm water intrusion, potentially leading to rapid retreat and contributing to global sea level rise.
Katie is a volunteer on this voyage although her lab is funded through Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) which is a government funded program. In Australia, Centres for Excellence are formed which focus on research areas and topics.
Katie’s Honor's project will last nine months. After she is finished with the project, she wants to keep embarking on voyages, hopefully to Antarctica. She said “It is the ocean that brought me here” and she wants to keep studying it.
