ASEG news - Issue 7, 29th Oct 2018

Dear Members,

In today's news you'll find information on:

ASEG Photo competition - voting closes soon
Professor Kurt Lambeck awarded the Prime Ministers Prize for Science
Professor Trevor McDougall named AGU Fellow
IUGG
2018 AEGC AI Workshop talks
SA and QLD ASEG Mentoring Programs
News from the states
Upcoming events (National and International)
The latest in Exploration Geophysics
What's new in Preview?
Member Spotlight: Glen McFadzean
Follow us on social media
Thanks to our corporate members

Don't forget to follow our social media accounts, for more regular updates on upcoming events and geoscience articles of interest.

ASEG 2018 Photo competition - Voting closes soon

The ASEG would like to thank all entrants in the 2018 Photo competition for their contributions. Although members may vote for more than one photo, they may not vote for the same photo more than once. Votes by non-members will not be counted. Get your votes in here by end of day October 31st, 2018.

Professor Kurt Lambeck awarded the Prime Ministers Prize for Science

The ASEG congratulates Professor Kurt Lambeck who has won the prestigious 2018 Prime Minister's Prize for Science. Professor Lambeck's work in geodesy has greatly progressed the field, enabling an increased understanding of the Earth's movement and improving accuracy of navigational technology; influencing satellites and space missions.

Professor Trevor McDougall named AGU Fellow

In August UNSW Professor Trevor McDougall was named an AGU Fellow in recognition of his scientific leadership and excellence in the Ocean Sciences. An Honors Tribute at the AGU Fall Meeting in December will celebrate the achievements of the 2018 Fellows. We congratulate Trevor on receiving this honour.

IUGG

The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) is the international organization dedicated to advancing, promoting, and communicating knowledge of the Earth system, its space environment, and the dynamical processes causing change. Follow them on social media (facebook,twitter) or sign up for their newsletter if you are interested.

2018 AEGC AI Workshop talks

Ken Witherly and John Hart advise that the recordings from last Februaries AI workshop at AEGC 2018 are now on-line here. Many thanks to the speakers for both presenting and giving release of their talks.

SA and QLD ASEG Mentoring Programs

Applications for mentees and mentors for the South Australia (ASEG, PESA, SPE and YPP) and Queensland (ASEG-PESA) mentoring programs are closing soon (Oct 31 and Nov 2 respectively). See the ASEG website for more details.

Branch upcoming events

For a more complete calendar of events see Preview

Volume 49 Number 5 2018 issue was released in October and has 17 articles to browse or study in-depth. It is a very busy issue and well worth a long glance at. My favourites are:

The magnetotelluric tensor: improved invariants for its decomposition, especially 'the 7th' by Ted Lilley - where he looks at invariants to do with MT processing of 1D, 2D and 3D data.

and

'Quantifying the differences between gravity reduction techniques' by Phil Heath - where he takes us on a journey through various reduction processes and pitfalls. A must read for the gravity aficionados.

Dr Mark Lackie

Editor

The October issue of Preview (196) is now available online. This issue of Preview features an article by Tim Dean and his colleagues on the use of geophysics in the search for Perth's lost World War 2 gun emplacements. In addition, David Denham (Canberra observed) reviews the Resources 2030 Taskforce report, and takes a look at the latest data on global demand for oil, and exploration investment in minerals and petroleum. Michael Asten (Education matters) features a student trip to the Velseis facilities near Brisbane. Mike Hatch (Environmental geophysics) reflects on how best to explain what we do to non-geophysicists. Terry Harvey (Minerals geophysics) considers geophysical inversions and asks if we are any closer to finding the proverbial Volkswagen in a cubic mile of rock. Mick Micenko (Seismic window) contemplates advances, or lack thereof, in time to depth conversions, and Dave Annetts (Webwaves) reviews the state of the Union, aka the latest version of ASEG website, on the occasion of its second birthday. Enjoy!

This issue we get to know Glen McFadzean, geophysics manager at Santos Ltd. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else to feature in the Member Spotlight please contact communications@aseg.org.au.

1. What is your current role?

Manager Geophysics at Santos Ltd.

2. For how long have you been a geophysicist?

I have been a Geophysicist for 25 years, starting my career as a graduate at Santos Ltd in the Operations Geophysics department in 1994.

After a few years I transferred into an Exploration & Development Team working across the Cooper Basin.

In the early 2000's I moved to Woodside in Perth where I worked (as the geophysicist) in Field Development Teams, primarily in the Australian Oil Division.

Next posting was Tripoli for a 3 year stint exploring Libya. After returning from Libya in 2009, I joined Hess Corporation initially based in Perth and then KL Malaysia, where I was seconded into Carigarli-Hess as the Leader of Geophysics. In 2014, I returned to Santos Ltd in Adelaide, back where it all started for me.

3. What do you like most about being a geophysicist?

The thing I enjoy most about being a geophysicist is the challenge of battling with non-unique seismic solutions.

Over my career I have really enjoyed working in multi-discipline sub-surface teams. Incorporating all possible data from other discipline experts to fine-tune a range of models and estimate the uncertainty and risk.

4. If you weren't a geophysicist what would you be?

Director of a Youth Science Discovery Centre or a Professional Tennis Player

5. What is your best interview tip?

It's a small industry, Be honest

6. What's one thing that we wouldn't know about you?

I met my wife on a plane returning from a wellsite geology job. I was an exhausted young Geo and she was an Angel (aka the flight attendant delivering me a nice cold beer after weeks in the hot desert)

7. Tell us about your best field meal?

I have had many. I used to love the greasy burgers delivered to the rig in the early hours of the morning when I was supervising logging jobs. As a skinny young kid anything delivered to me tasted great.

8. Where was your best sunrise location?

Tripoli Libya 2007. With a beautiful sunrise bursting over the desert horizon (and a big time difference with Oz) the AFL Grand Final was live on TV.

Port Adelaide v Geelong. The biggest losing margin in AFL GF history, poor Port.

9. What made you decide to be a geophysicist?

I was a little undecided on what to do next when I completed my BSc at Adelaide University. I was considering a job in mining.

A friend of mine was interviewing for a honours scholarship at the NCPGG (National Centre for Petroleum Geology and Geophysics), so I tagged along for the walk down to the Thebarton Campus.

Whilst my friend was being interviewed, I met the Director of the NCPGG in the hallway. He strongly encouraged me to sit down and have a chat with him about my future.

Ultimately we both got offered scholarships, so another year of study and a vacation job with Santos Ltd that led to a 25 year career.

10. Your funniest or worst field memory?

Getting slightly lost driving from one drilling rig to the next, when I was working in the field as a Wellsite Geo.

After driving around 'a bit lost' (but never in any harm) I spotted another rig on the horizon that I could ask for directions.

Unfortunately for me it was the same rig that I had just left. This gave everyone a great laugh.

By the time I finally arrived at the 2nd rig, word had already spread about the 'green' wellsite Geo on his way.

The joke went on for my entire hitch. "Need me to show you where the Geo shack is again mate?" was the favourite gag.

11. Your geophysical idol?

I don't have a geophysical idol but I have luckily had many great influences and mentors over my career. In my early years at Santos Ltd J. Hughes and N. Gibbins were geophysicists I respected. I learned a lot about basic seismic acquisition, processing, the fundamentals of seismic interpretation, mapping and exploration from these guys.

At Woodside Darryl Harris and Steve Abernethy both supported and mentored me as I refined my skills in geophysical uncertainty analysis and offshore oil field development planning.

At Hess J.P. Blangy and V. Ball were big influences in further developing my quantitative geophysics experience, and leading geophysical teams.

Now back at Santos Ltd my current leader Bill Ovenden continues this support and keeps me on my toes with constant technical challenge to get the most out of our seismic data.