Director's Message

Colleagues,

This week and next are big one’s for the university and School with many important events on the calendar.

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The School’s Experience Portfolio has organised a School morning tea for 10:30am in the Jaeger Seminar Room. Please join in and bring some ideas to share with colleagues about how we can promote and get the benefits of equity of access and participation in STEM.

This afternoon will see the 2018 Commencement Address by the VC, Brian Schmidt, held on the lawns of University Avenue west side of Sullivans Crrek Bridge. It will be followed by a drinks reception. More information and the opportunity to still sign up through Eventbrite can be found at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2018-commencement-address-tickets-41373325731

Next Monday, the VC will be visiting RSES between 1 and 2:30pm to talk to all staff and students. The VC will be begin by addressing the School, followed by a 45minute Q&A session where you can put your questions to the VC, and finishing up with an afternoon tea.

I encourage as many of you as possible to turn up to any or all of the above

Steve

School Morning Tea - Today

Members of the School are invited to a special morning tea on Monday February 12 (TODAY) to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This is a UN special day. Please join us in the J1 Seminar Room at 10:30am to celebrate the scientific achievements of our female researchers and professional staff.

We congratulate Prof. Vickie Bennett on her election to current Vice President (2018-2019) and future President (2020-2022) of the Geochemical Society (https://www.geochemsoc.org/).  The GS is an international community of ~4000 geochemists.  The activities of the Society include the Goldschmidt Conference, sponsorship of the journal Geochemica et Cosmochimica Acta and Elements magazine, awards, and a range of international outreach and student/ ECR support initiatives.  

Mount Brown ice core drilling project:

The Mount Brown South ice core drilling project in East Antarctica has been successfully completed. The team recovered a 294.6m deep ice core which is expected to provide a 1000-year long, annually-resolved climate history for the southern Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica. The team also drilled a further 65m of shallow cores to test replication of the climate signal in the ice over the period of time covered by satellite climate observations, and collected ApRes, GPS and borehole temperature data to characterise ice dynamics at the site. Australian Antarctic Division aircraft (twin otter and basler planes and squirrel helicopters) and operations teams working out of Davis and Casey stations provided logistical support for the project.

Nerilie Abram

Charlie - has style

Charlie was feeling the cooler temps of Canberra so the students helped him adjust.

Donations to keep Charlie can be made via this link http://www.anu.edu.au/giving/support-us/charlie-the-crocodile

Watch the donation gage rise.

Fieldwork in the Galapagos

Ian Williams and Xiaoyu Su went to the Galapagos for fieldwork in January to collect samples that might contain exotic zircons older than the islands. These are tropical volcanic islands where Pahoehoe and Aa lava make up the unique costal landscape. We spent most of the time on the island of Floreana and sampled along the drainage system from the sea coast to the top of the volcanoes to find out the source of these zircons. Vegetation also changed along the way from savanna to subtropical forest. A local guide from the National Park helped us to open a trail in those environments with a machete and every one of us needed to be cautious to avoid spikes from trees and undergrowth. These islands are also a paradise for animals which outnumber people living there. Thus, it gave me a chance to pan our samples with sea lions swimming around me.

Xiaoyu Su

Computer Resources for Researchers.

Seminar: I am a Researcher at RSES: what data and compute resources can I access?

Wednesday 21 February, 12.45pm - 3.30pm, J1 Seminar Room

Knowing how and where to access the most appropriate data and compute resources is becoming fundamental to research. This seminar at the Research School of Earth Sciences is designed to give researchers and graduate students information on what data and compute resources they can access (within RSES, the ANU, and elsewhere) and show how they can best make use of them. Come along to find out what resources are available to help you store, process, manage and publish your research data. A full program will be available shortly, contact Julia Martin or Paul Davidson with any enquiries.

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