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Director's Message
Dear Colleagues,
This week’s newsletter is chocka-block full of upcoming events so please make sure you read through to the end to find out what is happening around the School. This includes this week’s Robert Hill Memorial Talk by Dr Kate Holland where Kate will be presented the Robert Hill Award for science communication. Congratulations also to our Engagement team people for being funded to promote ‘Girls in Geoscience’ to year 11 and 12 high school students in our region,
Best wishes for the week ahead
Steve
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Warramunga Station
The Warramunga Seismic and Infrasound Research Station, located south of Tennant Creek NT and operated by the Seismology & Mathematical Geophysics research group, was visited last week by Eric Ward and Dave Cassar. The station, a unique research facility set in a remote and challenging landscape, is operated by two full-time RSES staff; Joel Tatapudi and Rajesh Erigela. The purpose of the visit was to connect with the station operators, who normally only visit RSES for a few days each year, and provide them access to the same face-to-face support enjoyed by other RSES staff, particularly around management of work health and safety.
The Warramunga staff made the most of the visit, taking the opportunity to discuss a range of issues and seek advice from the Building Manager and Laboratory Manager. The trip was a great success, in large part due to the welcoming nature of the station operators who even put on a BBQ lunch – shared with a few thousand local flies of course!
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Congratulations: |
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Hannah James and Bethany Ellis won a National Science Week ACT Seed Grant for a “Girls in Geoscience” event to be held at RSES during National Science Week. This will be a full day event for Year 11 and 12 girls to showcase the range of fascinating topics in the Geosciences |
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Marla to Oodnadata Seismic Line
In April the Australian National University installed a dense passive seismic line in South Australia from Marla to Oodnadatta. This new line is an exciting proof of concept project. The aim is to use seismic signals from both ambient noise and earthquakes to look at the lithospheric structure in detail. It is hoped that this project will be able to fill the gap between expensive active source seismic lines and larger aperture arrays to provide a detailed crustal scale cross section. The location of the line is targeting an area where a change in crustal thickness has been identified in seismic array data, from thick crust (48 km) at Marla to thin crust at Oodndatta (28km).
The seismic line runs ~230km west to east from Marla with seismic stations approximately every 3.5 km in places following the Oodnadatta Track.
The field crew – left to right – Armando Arcidiaco, Rajesh Erigela, Michelle Salmon and Geoff Luton. |
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Order of Leopold ll
On Friday May 4, Patrick De Deckker was invited to the Belgian Embassy in Canberra to receive from the Belgian Ambassador Mr Marc Mullie the title of Officer of the Order of Leopold II. This award was bestowed for Patrick’s high achievements in science, for his links with several Belgian academic institutions, his recent work on the Belgica expedition and his long-term involvement with the Belgian community of Canberra.
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COSIMA workshop
Last week we held the annual COSIMA workshop here at ANU. COSIMA is the Consortium for Ocean-Sea Ice Modelling in Australia, supported by an ARC Linkage Project with partners in the Australian Antarctic Division, Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO. We had a very productive workshop with 45 participants from around the country, including a keynote talk from Steven Griffies (NOAA’s GFDL and Princeton University). |
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Special Event - Your invited
What: GRACE Follow-On launch
Where: RSES J1 Seminar Room
When: 6.03 am Sunday 20th May
Breakfast will be provided from 5.30am
The GRACE mission operated successfully for 15 year before being decommissioned in 2017 and the GRACE Follow-On mission will continue the legacy of tracking water on Earth. This is providing critical information regarding the contributions to global sea level rise from mass balance changes in Antarctica and Greenland. These missions also provide unprecedented knowledge of water resources (including soil moisture and groundwater) in Australia and around the world.
As you may be aware, ANU scientists developed and built the prototype laser interferometer that is part of the payload for the GRACE Follow-On mission. ANU scientists have also created software to analyse the data from the mission to quantify the redistribution of water on Earth.
It is an exciting time to be involved in space activities in Australia and we hope you will be able to join us in watching the live launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Airforce Base, California.
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PhD Welcome Day |
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RSES PhD Welcome Day will be held on Tuesday 22 May 2018. Below is a draft agenda:
10:00am - 10:30am Welcome and introduction of new students
10:30am - 11:00am RSES Morning Tea (for the entire School) "FREE Donuts"
11:00am - 12:00 noon Introduction of PhD program by Simon McClusky (Delegated Authority)
12:00 noon - 1:30 pm Pizza lunch for all students in the courtyard
1:30pm - 3:00pm Visit to RSES labs
Can you pleae make sure to put the above date/times in your diary. |
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2018 Photography Competition
We’d like to invite everyone at RSES to submit photographs into the 2018 Photography Competition! The deadline is May 31st.
This year we have four categories:
RSES in the Field - Highlighting the range of field activities, we undertake at RSES for both education and research
RSES in the Lab - A look at the lab facilities, machines and people at RSES
RSES samples -Thinsections, SEM images or anything looking at the samples we investigate at RSES
RSES on Holiday - Photos of the exciting geological, climatological, or environmental places we visit on holiday.
To enter your photos please upload them along with a short description on our Google Drive: Here
As with last year, all photos will be displayed in the J1 foyer and then used in RSES marketing (for example, on TV screens around the school, the website, and in print materials). The winners will be announced at the Student Conference on Monday June 4th.
If you have any questions please email rses.stu.con@gmail.com |
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Winter Intensive Tutoring Program
Starts O Week Monday 16 July
Are you interested in gaining new skills to improve your effectiveness as a tutor/demonstrator? Principles of Tutoring and Demonstrating (PTD) is an intensive 10 module program, designed to help you develop teaching strategies, apply effective lesson planning principles, offer practical help with marking and examples of how to give feedback to your students.
This program is offered during O Week to PhD students who have some tutoring experience. Another PTD program is scheduled for semester 2 and is more practical for those participants new to tutoring. Dates for the ‘new to tutoring’ program released in mid-June.
Winter Intensive Program
Modules T1 & T2 – Monday 16 July
Modules T3 & T4 – Tuesday 17 July
Modules T5 & T7 – Thursday 19 July
Module T8 – Friday 20 July
Module T9 – Monday 23 July ( fully online)
Module T6 – Monday 30 July (Peer Observation with online reflection, participants to organise)
Module T10 – Tuesday 31 July
Registrations essential at https://services.anu.edu.au/training/principles-of-tutoring-and-demonstrating (On the webpage click top right – Register Now button).
If you have completed a tutor training program in your College you can gain credit in PTD for the modules you have completed (please indicate in your registration what modules you have completed – you will need to provide a certificate or evidence of the completion of these modules).
All modules, except Peer Observation (T6) & Evaluation and Reflective Practice (T9), will be held in the CHELT Seminar Room, Chancelry 10T1. |
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Negative Emissions Conference |
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Calling for abstract and registration to the Negative Emissions conference sponsored by RSES.
Where: The Shine Dome, Canberra
When: 30-31 October 2018
More information can be found here: and here: |
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Publications
Michael Anenburg, John A.Mavrogenes
Carbonatitic versus hydrothermal origin for fluorapatite REE-Th deposits: Experimental study of REE transport and crustal “antiskarn” metasomatism
American Journal of Science, 2018, 318(3), 335-366
Stephen F. Poropat, Sarah K. Martin, Anne-Marie P. Tosolini, Barbara E. Wagstaff, Lynne B. Bean, Benjamin P. Kear, Patricia Vickers-Rich & Thomas H. Rich (2018): Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date, Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, DOI: 10.1080/03115518.2018.1453085
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Congratulations to Jennifer Wurtzel on completing her PhD |
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Welcome:
New PhD student Yingxin Kou to the Palaeoenvironment group.
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Data Science Events:
"Data Science Lunch"
When: Noon - Monday 14th May
Where: Hales Seminar room
Our aim is to meet to have in-depth, high level discussions on ongoing research and specific data science subjects.
RSES students and staffs who are interested in actively participating in the discussions are thus invited to come with their lunch.
We will discuss the use of neural network, support vector and kernel ridge algorithms in regression tasks, and particularly the implications of dataset correlations for performance. |
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GSA's EEHSG Distinguished Lecturer talk at GA
Prof Steve Gorelick from Stanford University will be presenting the GSA’s EEHSG Distinguished Lecturer talk:
Title: Freshwater scarcity in semi-arid and tropical regions:Jordan’s water security and Vietnam’s invisible hazard
When: Tuesday May 15 at 13.00,
Where: the Raggett Theatre at GA (13.00-14.00).
It will be a public lecture. All welcome to attend. |
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Training
An important service of the Human Resource Division is the provision of a range of relevant and contemporary training and development opportunities for university staff.
To improve current staff training and development opportunities, we have undertaken the two major actions:
- Conducted an informal training needs analysis to identify delivery gaps in staff training needs which has resulted in the introduction of new and additional training workshops that will be offered across the course of the 2018 year.
- Refreshed the ANU Staff Training & Development website to streamline and update information on the range of face-to-face training and online training opportunities – the refreshed site is available at: https://services.anu.edu.au/human-resources/training-development
These service improvements are part of our broader goal to strengthen support for individual professional and career development, and the advancement of the university’s strategic priorities and vision. |
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ANU offers a range of counselling services for enrolled students (undergraduate or postgraduate) who might be experiencing a range of difficulties around mental health, stress, motivation, social anxiety and so on.
web-site is http://www.anu.edu.au/students/health-wellbeing/counselling
In addition to the group programs and workshops they also offer confidential counselling services for individuals. If you have concerns about the welfare of any of your students, please consider directing them towards this service, |
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ANU Reconciliation Week
Join the ANU in the celbration of Reconciliation week Friday 25th May - Sunday 3rd June
In 2018 ANU celebrates Rconiciliation week with achievements of our Indigenous staff, students and research. Don't forget to join us at one of our many events and activities as we mark these majour milestongs and our jouney towards reconciliation. >>read more |
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