Lou Peake

About

Lou Peake
La Trobe University
Honours Student

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Background

Lou’s research focusses on invasive alien species in the Antarctic. Antarctica is so unique and geographically isolated that it has been relatively protected from alien species but at the same time it’s more sensitive to biological invasions especially as the climate changes. For these reasons it’s important to study how biological invasions in the Antarctic are similar and different to those worldwide and to use the history of invasions to learn how to prevent future ones.

After completing their Bachelor of Science at University of Sydney, Lou joined SAEF in 2022 as a research intern. They helped to finalise a comprehensive dataset of over 3000 invasive alien species in the Antarctic. At the end of their internship, they continued on with the McGeoch Research Group as an Honours student at La Trobe University and now hope to continue on to a Masters.

“Antarctica is one of the last regions of the world that’s relatively untouched by humans and if I’ve learnt anything from documenting the introduced species, we should try to keep it that way.”

— Lou Peake