Mike Williams trained as an oceanographer in Australia and worked in Denmark before returning to New Zealand 20 years ago to work at NIWA. In 2021 he was appointed Chief Scientist-Oceans at NIWA. His research career has covered a range of areas including climate change, ocean acidification, and ice-ocean interaction, and has a focus on the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. In recent years he has also become interested in tsunami, and is involved in the establishment of a tsunami observation and assessment system for New Zealand. Mike is also the current New Zealand representative to the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and a co-chair of the Southern Ocean Observing System.