John has been involved in polar and marine research for over 30 years, studying animals ranging from microscopic crustaceans to whales, fish and dugongs. He has a love of travel and the natural world and a passion for exploring the planet’s wild and wonderful places.
John started his career as a marine biologist with the Australian Antarctic Division in the 1980’s, participating in multiple research expeditions to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. A highlight of this time was the year he spent at Davis Station on the East Antarctic coastline. There he conducted a year-round under-ice SCUBA diving program, documenting the diverse invertebrate fauna of the Antarctic coastal sea floor. He also monitored seal and penguin populations; in one project travelling across frozen seas for hundreds of kilometres to tag Weddell seals and record their new pups. John continued his Antarctic research at Monash University, where he completed a PhD on the ecology of zooplankton in an Antarctic fjord.
Away from Antarctica, John has worked as a fisheries scientist, commercial diver, environmental manager and university academic. He is currently a lecturer at Griffith University, where he teaches integrated resource management and mentors postgraduate student researchers.
Whether in Antarctica or the Arctic, each time John travels with Aurora Expeditions he experiences something new and exciting, and he eagerly anticipates each and every voyage.