Why study oceanography?

Dr Mike Williams from NIWA explains why he studied oceanography and how he got hooked on working in and studying Antarctica.

Transcript

DR MIKE WILLIAMS
Like lots of people, I went to University not really knowing what to do, and – and then I had a very inspiring lecturer who - who drew me into - to working in oceanography. And while I was doing my first degree in oceanography I got the opportunity to go to Antarctica. And I was hooked.

Anything to do with Antarctica was where I wanted to be working. So I sort of pursued that training in oceanography and a sort of developing interest in ice and icebergs and ice shelves. Part of it is that you get to look at pictures of truly beautiful bits of nature, and having gone there once, you get to this point in your life where you decide, “well, once was fantastic and do I clock that up as another fantastic place I’ve visited in the world, and then go off and do something else”, or do you decide that “I want to go back”. And if you want to go back to Antarctica, the - one of the easiest ways is to do it is as a scientist.