Conservation Team

Meet our conservation team who will be working on Port Lockroy (Base A) and Damoy Hut. They will be carrying out important survey and sampling work which will allow us to care and conserve this unique piece of our Antarctic heritage. 

Geoff Cooper
Conservation Programme Manager

Having spent the first half of his career managing Marine Biology surveys for an Environmental consultancy and subsequently project managing the roll out of Information Systems in Japan and Europe for a large Pharmaceutical company, Geoff retrained as a traditional oak frame carpenter. His interest in conservation carpentry led him to work across Suffolk restoring buildings and ancient monuments, dating from as early as the fourteenth century.

A lifelong interest in Antarctic exploration has been rewarded by employment as a Conservation Carpenter by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust spending two seasons working on the conservation of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition Hut A at Scott Base in the Ross Sea Region. In addition to this Geoff worked with the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust earlier this year; he was one of the Conservation Carpenters who spent 10 weeks on Stonington island conducting surveys and emergency repairs to both Base E as well as East Base. This season he will manage the conservation project at Port Lockroy and Damoy in addition to carrying out the building conservation surveys and conducting any necessary emergency repairs.

Lizzie Meek
Artefacts Expert

Lizzie is currently the Programme Manager-Artefacts for the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust. For the last eleven years, Lizzie has led and worked with teams conserving the heroic era expedition bases in Antarctica, including a winter at Scott Base and many summers in the field. In her spare time she is Vice-President of Lyttelton Museum, and is attempting to learn to ski. She completed a Diploma in Craft Design in 2008, then moved to the UK for six years, where she achieved her Post-graduate Diploma in Conservation of Library and Archival Materials. Prior heritage conservation posts include Senior Book Conservator, National Library of New Zealand, and Book Conservator, British Library. In 2018 Lizzie worked for UKAHT at Stonington and will be at Port Lockroy this season working alongside Sophie.

Nathan Fenney
Conservation Geomatics Specialist

Based in Cambridge, UK, Nathan is a Geomatics Specialist with the Mapping and Geographic Information Centre (MAGIC) at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).  With a background in geology, in 2015 he moved to the UK from New Zealand and undertook an MSc in Geographical Information Science at the University of Edinburgh, looking at how best to capture complex topography using unmanned aerial vehicles and oblique photogrammetry.  Now at BAS, Nathan provides geomatics support for both science and operational teams working in the Polar Regions.  In 2018, as part of the UKAHT conservation team, Nathan was deployed to Stonington Island to undertake the 3D data capture of the site.

Sophie Rowe
Artefacts expert

Sophie is an object conservator with over 20 years of experience working in National and University Museums.  She first became excited about Antarctic heritage while working at the Polar Museum in Cambridge, which is home to an amazing collection from Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition, as well as many fascinating objects from more recent Antarctic explorations.  Sophie was conservator at the Polar Museum and worked on these collections from 2012-19, in a post sponsored by UKAHT.

In 2017 she went to Antarctica for the first time to carry out a full inventory and condition survey of the artefacts at Base Y, on Horseshoe Island, and hugely enjoyed the chance to spend so much time getting to know the hut and it's contents.  She is really looking forward to undertaking the same work at Port Lockroy this season and working alongside the rest of the Conservation Team and Port Lockroy Team to look after the site and the objects there.

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We are very keen to promote the important heritage work that we do, telling the story of life in Antarctica both past and present. If you are interested in running a story about us, using our images or films or want to discuss an interview or potential collaboration opportunity we would love to hear from you.  Please contact either Sarah or Lewis at Limewash to discuss your requirements sarah@limewash.co.uk or +44 (0)1223 813 557.