Po-Kwan Katie Liu, BSc (Hon)

What’s the work that you do?

As a master’s student specialising in Governance and Policy at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), my current research focuses on mapping the professionalisation of the Antarctic tour guiding workforce. This paves the way for discussion and development of a more structured competency framework for Antarctic tour guiding. Outside of academia, I work as an Antarctic expedition guide on a tourism vessel. My day to day work on the ship includes ensuring compliance with visitor guidelines, handling risk management, and shaping visitors’ interpretations and understanding of Antarctica.

What keeps you going?

An adventurous conservationist at heart, I am also a diver and mountaineer, and one of the mentees from the first cohort of the Asia Youth Alpine Mentorship Program (AYAMP). My journeys — from coral restoration scientific dives and climbing Asia’s crags, to scrambling the European Alps’ rugged ranges and ice climbing in the Norwegian Arctic — have deepened my concern for the rapidly vanishing cryosphere and the ecosystems at risk due to climate change. Witnessing these fragile landscapes firsthand has fuelled my determination to foster multidisciplinary and international cooperation addressing ocean governance challenges, and to channel science into sustained policy and public action toward a more climate-resilient future.

What’s your message to the world?

A senior polar guide once shared with me: “Nature will thrive even without humans; humans cannot survive without nature.” I believe every little step counts. The actions and choices we make in our daily lives are — and will continue to be — determining the fate of the polar regions.