Perhaps the most important person in the Cape Roberts Project is the Project Manager, Jim Cowie.

Jim is responsible to the National Antarctic Programmes of five countries (Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand) and James Cook University in Australia, to ensure that the Project goes ahead smoothly.

A Dunedin boy, Jim went to George Street Normal School, North Intermediate School then to Otago Boys’ High before going to Dunedin Teachers Training College and Otago University. After teaching in New Zealand for 10 years, Jim ran an Outdoor Education programme in Surrey, England. Returning to New Zealand he became HOD Physical Education at Kaikorai Valley High School before joining the New Zealand Airforce. Based at Wigram in Christchurch and then Auckland Jim was involved in Education and Training, travelling at various times to Pacific countries.

His Antarctic connections go back to the summer of 1974/75 when he was employed by the New Zealand Antarctic Research Programme as a Survival Instructor. Using his background and training in mountaineering, Jim along with two other New Zealanders was responsible for training New Zealand and American personnel in Antarctic travel and field living. This training is now called AFT (Antarctic Field Training).

In 1984 Jim returned to the Antarctic as the Officer in Charge of Scott Base for the 1984/85 summer. This summer was a busy research season, that included the CIROS (Cenozoic Investigation of the Ross Sea) drilling project at Butter Point a total of 250 people visiting Scott Base during the summer.

In 1994 Jim started work as the Cape Roberts Project Manager. Two international committees made up of representatives of the six countries involved in the project, oversee his work. They are the Operations Management Group (OMG) and the International Science Steering Committee (ISSC). Jim travels overseas from time to time to meet with these committees. They make all the important decisions, but Jim is required to turn those decisions into actual progress. Jim has to work with lots of different people with skills very different from each other and from his own. People such as drillers, scientists, mechanics, bureaucrats, electricians, news reporters and politicians as well as people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Although the project has been going since 1994, drilling will only start this spring. The last three years has seen the design and construction of the buildings, water desalination plant, drilling rig and countless smaller items and there transportation to Cape Roberts by ship or by sleds pulled by bulldozers, from Scott Base. Each part of these operations has been supervised by Jim.

On Jim’s last visit to Antarctica in January, he commented about his visit to the Crary Laboratory at McMurdo Station, where individual laboratories have been especially fitted-out for the forty scientists who will work on the Cape Roberts rock core. "Seeing all the preparations being made for the rock core analysis and knowing that so many people are relying on it, impressed upon me and the rest of the team just how important our job is".

Jim has a fascination with the Antarctic that started over twenty years ago. As a young mountaineer he became captivated and captured by his first Antarctic experiences. "Before returning home to New Zealand, I always go for a walk up Observation Hill. The view of McMurdo Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf is incredible. I do it just in case I never get to return".