Meet our 2025 Antarctic team

24/09/2025

We are thrilled to introduce our new Antarctic team set to travel 9,000 miles to Antarctica as part of its ambitious three-year project to safeguard the British heritage site, Base A, Port Lockroy, from the impact of climate change. 

One team will be stationed for the austral summer at Base A, Port Lockroy, known as the birthplace of British Antarctic science and now home to the world’s southernmost post office, a museum and our beloved colony of over 1,000 gentoo penguins. 

A new chapter of conservation

While the charity usually deploys a team each year to manage its flagship historic site, this season marks the start of a different chapter. Located on the Antarctic Peninsula – one of the fastest warming places on the planet – Port Lockroy is facing escalating deterioration from age, climate change and environmental factors. 

Now over 80 years old, the site’s historic buildings have profound structural challenges which require urgent assessment and repair to withstand increasing levels of precipitation, water flow and snow loading. 

The team will identify vulnerabilities in the site’s structural integrity, carry out crucial repairs and begin the first phase of a vital three-year plan to safeguard Port Lockroy and the history within its walls. 

Understanding the challenges that lie ahead, UKAHT has assembled a 2025-26 team that brings together a combination of Antarctic experience, specialist expertise and an in-depth understanding of the site’s cultural and environmental importance. 

The team stationed at Base A, Port Lockroy, will be living and working on the football-pitch-size Goudier Island for the next few months and will spend Christmas in one of the most remote places on the planet.

The full Antarctica team on a training weekend in the Peak District with UKAHT (UKAHT/Peter Watson)

Alongside the urgent conservation work, they will be running the world’s southernmost post office, museum and gift shop, and monitoring the island’s 1,000 gentoo penguin residents. They will handle the thousands of postcards that are sent from Port Lockroy each year, as well as count gentoo penguin nests, eggs and chicks as part of a study to monitor and protect the colony.

They will have to adapt to living with no running water or flushing toilets, as well as working in near-constant daylight and sub-zero temperatures. The unpredictable weather can also change plans within minutes, with previous teams having to dig their way into their accommodation.

The team will have no home comforts except for a small box of goodies they can send with the cargo shipment, but they will also get the chance to glimpse sights such as the Antarctic midnight sun and the life cycle of their penguin neighbours. 

The charity can reveal that the team travelling 9,000 miles to Antarctica to manage and restore Base A, Port Lockroy, this season includes: 

• Lisa Ford, Base Leader
• Tiago Figueiredo, Shop Manager
• Amanda Barry, Museum Manager 
• George Clarke, Postmaster
• Alette Kattenberg, Wildlife Monitor 
• Jim Brearley-Ratcliffe, Conservation Carpenter
• Jolyon Oliver, Conservation Carpenter
• Daniel Cheetham, Conservation Carpenter

The team will also be supported on the ground by UKAHT staff members Peter Watson (communications officer), Rachel Wilkinson (operations officer), and support staff Julian Knight (electrician), Mathew Speed (IT consultant), Maggie Cooke (structural engineer) and Keir Daley (hazardous materials consultant).

Introducing the 2025/26 Antarctic team

The new team will soon begin their pre-deployment training, which will include remote first aid training, a sea survival course, talks from a penguinologist and a deep dive into the strict protocols and standards they will be responsible for upholding, in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty, to ensure the environment is properly cared for.

Commenting on the new Antarctic team, UKAHT CEO Camilla Nichol, said: 

"With the structural adaptations needed at Port Lockroy this year, we’ve handpicked a team not just for their love of Antarctica, but their specialist knowledge and understanding of the environment that will ensure we can hit the ground running. This year sees a huge step change for us as an organisation as we meet the escalating demands of caring for heritage in one of the harshest environments on earth. We are still actively fundraising to restore Port Lockroy, so people can still help by donating to our Special Appeal – it’s hugely appreciated.”

Lisa Ford, Base Leader

Lisa trained as a doctor and then spent much of her time travelling and working abroad. She did further training in tropical and travel medicine and then worked as a medic for the British Antarctic Survey for 18 months for the final wintering season at Signy Island, where she met her husband.

Lisa is returning to Port Lockroy, this time as base leader (UKAHT/Laura Büllesbach)

Lisa is now based in North Wales and specialises in travel medicine, combining her two loves. Lisa is returning to Port Lockroy for her third successive season – this time as Base Leader. 

She explains why she is returning, “I can’t wait to be back in a place I love, amongst the magnificent scenery and wildlife. I love the simplicity of life there, living and sharing the island with the penguins and other wildlife.”

Amanda Barry, Museum Manager

Amanda grew up surrounded by books about Antarctica that had belonged to her father, who had been stationed at Port Lockroy in 1948/9. She is also the author of a book herself, PR Power, a guide to public relations and spent 30 years working in the communications industry, finishing as Head of Press for recycling body WRAP.

Amanda will be Port lockroy's museum manager (Amanda Barry)

Seventy-seven years after her father’s tenure at Port Lockroy, she is thrilled to be following in his footsteps. When not dreaming about the Antarctic, Amanda loves to walk with her two spaniels in the hills near her home in the Scottish Highlands. 

“To live and work at Port Lockroy is the culmination of a dream for me. A dream that started with the chance discovery of my father’s own Port Lockroy journals and papers from his time there in 1948. He vowed to return but never could, so I feel incredibly thrilled to be keeping that vow in his memory.”

Jolyon Oliver, Conservation Carpenter

Jo’s language is wood – quite literally, according to the late sculptor Anthony Caro, with whom Jo worked for over two decades. Craftsmanship runs deep in his family, stretching back through generations of makers – from his grandfather’s work on WWII Mosquito aircraft to his father’s cabinetmaking.

Jolyon will be working at Port lockroy as a conservation carpenter (UKAHT/Peter Watson)

Based in Somerset, Jo brings a sculptor’s eye and a conservationist’s care to everything from restoring historic homes and artworks to building film sets and festival structures for Glastonbury. When not in the workshop, he loves racing yachts with his son or walking the dog through the Somerset countryside.

“Having the opportunity to travel to Antarctica with UKAHT will bring together so many of the things I care about – conservation, craftsmanship and adventure. I’ve always been drawn to remote places, simple living and creative problem-solving. This role will allow me to use the skills passed down through generations of makers in my family to help preserve something truly unique. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to a place that is both remarkable and in need of care.”

Meet the people behind our work — from Antarctica to the UK — on our team page.