Maria Fernando

What’s the work that you do?

I help keep the power on at Scott Base, New Zealand’s Antarctic research station at Pram Point, Ross Island. I work as the Electrical and Wind Engineer for Antarctica New Zealand and primarily manage our generators at Scott Base and the wind turbines behind it on Crater Hill.

What keeps you going?

What keeps me going is that my job directly ensures that science can happen. I enjoy the variety of work that comes with problem solving, particularly getting things to work within the conditions we face (i.e the cold) and the constraints of what we have available as spares – the hardware shop isn’t exactly down the road! I enjoy working within a diverse, capable team and knowing my work is making a difference.

What’s your message to the world?

There is still time to solve the climate crisis! We need to work together though. Polar science is a big piece of the puzzle and enabling evidence of the change is important to be able to tell the story.