James MacPhail

James joined the Antarctic Research Centre at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University in late 2022. He is part of the Science Drilling Office where he provides engineering technical, design and planning support in New Zealand, Antarctica, and overseas. He designs and develops scientific drilling equipment, participates in field programmes including operating and maintaining drilling systems, and contributes to upcoming projects. He also supports the AIDD (Antarctic Intermediate Depth Drill) construction and operational drillers.

James has a Mechanical Engineering degree from Edinburgh Napier University and, in 2015, did an internship at the North Sea exploration company. James has various mechanical and maintenance experience, including mechanical design and development, FEA and simulation, and statistics, dynamics, energy and thermofluid calculations.