Peter has been monitoring the environment for over 25 years. Ever since landing his first job with the University of Auckland’s Environmental Science program Peter has been dedicated to making sense of the environment. Peter has been variously involved in air quality monitoring programmes; conducting coastal and deep sea oceanography; sampling benthic sediments; studying the biota both macroscopically and microscopically; following fresh water as it makes its way through a catchment; and analysing it as it comes out the other end.

He was a foundation member of the School of Environmental and Marine Sciences at Auckland University, serving as Technical Manager there from the School’s inception in 1994 until the its dissolution in 2002. In 2003 Peter moved to the United Kingdom to take up a position at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), based in Southampton, working for the UK Ocean Research Service. During his tenure there Peter worked with the Sensors and Mooring Group and became involved in many high profile oceanographic and climate projects such as the RAPID climate change mooring array across the Atlantic at 24° N, and the multi-year CROZEX series of cruises studying natural iron enrichment in the south Indian Ocean in the vicinity of the Crozet plateau. His active engagement with these and similar projects led him to spend nearly half his time at sea during the years he spent with the NOC.

At the end of 2006 Peter left to pursue other challenges in Marine Science and in early 2009 he formed Keen Marine Ltd as a means of providing greater service to clients worldwide. Since then he has been involved with commercial sector projects in Kazakhstan, Ireland, Thailand, and the Philippines. Peter still regularly sails on NERC vessels in support of UK Marine Science and maintains a visiting researcher position at the National Oceanography Centre, continuing his work on the use of elemental signatures as markers of provenance for organisms living in the coastal aquatic environment.

Lately he has widened his interests and become actively involved with autonomous aquatic vehicles and sensor networks for integrated monitoring of the oceanic environment.

Outside of professional matters Peter is a keen photographer and mountain biker, in addition to being very partial to a good tune.