Researcher Summary
I work currently as contract researcher for the Deep South National Science Project. The project recovers meteorological information from logbooks (merchant and navy ships) from the late 18th century until the mid 20th century which operated in the Southern Ocean including in Australian and New Zealand waters. The data is processed then in the reanalysis of historic weather phenomena to draw conclusion for future weather models.
My research interest lays in environmental and social history which includes weather data from the Heroic era onwards to investigate the influence on social condition of early expedition members and their interactions which could influence the outcome of an expedition. This research includes also biographies of expedition members from German, Austro-Hungarian and English speaking countries. My research covers also political, social and economic factors which influenced the expeditions to put the events in an appropriate historic context.
Archival research is necessary to gather diaries, ship journals, correspondence, pictures and reports on expeditions. They are mostly handwritten and I do transcriptions to interpret the contents and put it in a wider context. Social conditions cover issues such as food, medical conditions, every day life, recruitment, insurance, income, hierarchy and leadership and how these conditions influenced the expeditions and vice versa the people.
