UOW student partakes in research on Antarctica

It was an experience of a lifetime that has prompted Lachlan Souter's inquisitive nature.

The former Southern Highlands Christian School student is currently studying an honours degree in medical radiation and physics at the University of Wollongong and hopes to do a PHD before getting into a career of research.

Head of quality education at the high school Peter Lee coordinated the trip with the university.

"For me, it was sort of like work experience," Mr Souter said of the flight in November, 2018 when he was still in high school.

"A lot of people in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field wouldn't experience what I did until later in their career."

"The university also wanted to show that the equipment they had produced could still be taught to someone with relatively little education."

Although he didn't land on the continent, he still had the time of his life.

"My highlight of the 14 hour trip was getting to see the continent itself," Mr Souter said.

"I was surprised to learn there were active volcanoes on the continent.

"There were some areas where there's almost no snow."

One of the tasks he was involved in was research and field work.

"I was recording a lot of data like altitude, latitude and longitude," he said.

"We had a phone running with GPS software that gave us our flight path and we always took turns watching the equipment to see what it was doing."

The entire flight was 14 hours.

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