Prof. T. G. Allan Green
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Hanging 1400 metres above the valley after checking our Austrian research site in the Alps.
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| Lichens ready to go into space |
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Research Professor in Biology
Where do you call home, and what is your nationality?
New Zealand is home but I have several research projects in Europe so I now spend a lot of time there working with my Spanish collaborators.
What made you decide to“get into science”? Was there a person or event that helped you with your decision?
I was always interested but I must say that my school teacher made biology very interesting and we did a lot of exciting things so my interest grew while I was at school
what is your background, how/what did you do to get to where you are today?
Interested in biology from my school days and carried this on at university. After my first degree I carried out research for my doctorate with David Smith, the top lichen physiologist of the time so I naturally became interested in lichens and how organisms can survive and grow in extreme environments. One advantage of lichens is that they grow almost everywhere, they are very resistant, from the tropical rain forests to Antarctica. So you get to go everywhere. My special research area is looking at the photosynthesis of the lichens and when it occurs and how often it occurs. We now have automatic equipment that can monitor lichens continuously and report this by satellite phone, as a result we can see exactly when they are photosynthesising and when they are dry. We have one of these in Antarctica and we can look at what is happening every day if we wish. We have even sent some of our Antarctic lichens into space, and they survived with no apparent ill effects.
What is your role in this ‘08/’09 summer Dry Valleys research project?
PI (Principal Investigator) my job is to lead the project and to ensure that all the planning is done and the expected research results achieved. I am not actually in the field party so this is all done mainly by email from Spain where I am an investigator in two other Antarctic projects.
What do you hope to find out and how will this make a difference to school children of the future? I am always hoping that we can present our results in such an interesting manner that New Zealanders generally will understand what a special area they are in charge of in the Ross Dependency. Students in New Zealand are lucky as they have probably the best chance of any in the world of getting to Antarctica. |
