A group of mountainous peaks in Antarctica has been named after Professor Tim Naish, Director of the Antarctic Research Centre.

Staff and students at Victoria announced the new ‘Naish Peaks’ to a surprised Professor Naish, during a small ceremony to send-off members of the Centre travelling to Antarctica this season.

Professor Naish says it is a real honour. “I’m humbled and have to say I was a little lost for words—it isn’t just one mountain, but a whole range. My children seem to think they will get one peak each!

“I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with such a talented team of researchers in the ‘coolest’ place on the planet, doing science that matters for our future.

“In 2010 our group camped in the Beardmore Glacier, which is only 700 kilometres from the South Pole under the then unnamed Naish Peaks, finding fossil evidence of where beech trees once grew under a warmer climate. It is also near where Captain Scott’s team took time to relax on their ill-fated return from the South Pole in January 1912.”

The feature name was approved by the New Zealand Geographic Board Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa in September 2016, recognising Professor Naish’s highly successful Antarctic scientific career, particularly in the area of paleoclimatology.

Professor Mike Wilson, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Architecture and Design, says “the naming of Naish Peaks is a fitting recognition of Tim’s outstanding contribution to Antarctic science.”

Naish Peaks, a line of small peaks that sit between Antarctica’s Meyer Desert and Dominion Range valleys, reach up to 2,874 metres high, on a ridge trending east-west and spanning seven kilometres.

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