ASEG news - Issue 14, 31st May 2019

Dear Members,

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

AEGC all set for a sell-out in Perth
Seismic Soundoff
Frank Arnott Award 2.0
Western Australia Joint Industry Mentoring Program
News from the states
EAGE courses in WA
Upcoming events (National and International)
The latest in Exploration Geophysics
What's new in Preview?
Member Spotlight: Dr Chris Wijns
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.

AEGC all set for a sell-out in Perth

The second AEGC Conference which will be held at Perth's Crown Resort is already shaping up to be bigger and better than the inaugural event in Sydney last year, with more than 360 papers submitted from a rock star line-up of speakers.

Helen Debenham, AEGC Technical Program Chair, said the conference committee had been 'delighted' with both the quality and quantity of orators queueing up for this year’s gathering, which runs from September 2-5.

'At the moment, with more than 360 papers to be reviewed, for what will be a packed technical program, the reviewers have some hard decisions to make.' Debenham said. 'The numbers are about double the submission from the first AEGC held in Sydney last year.'

In addition, 30 workshops are planned in various conference rooms at Crown Resorts or around Perth and will be held in the days before and after the actual conference. In addition a selection of 3 field trips will be held following the conference. Numbers are limited on the field trips, so book early to avoid disappointment.

Following on from AEGC 2018 last February, organisers are confident that the 2019 edition will build on the success of the Sydney event with a line-up of illuminating presentations, opportunistic interaction and social stimulation that is sure to make this year's conference one for the memoirs.

A total of 24 industry respected Keynote speakers will be scheduled amongst the technical program. A full list will be decided upon once the technical papers have been reviewed, to ensure that the Keynote talks reflect the same themes as the submitted paper.

Seismic Soundoff

Have you heard the Society of Exploration Geophysicists podcast, Seismic Soundoff? Conversations about applied geophysics- check it out! There are 57 episodes so far on a wide variety of topics. The latest episode came out last week- details below:

On this episode of Seismic Soundoff, we start a journey with a team of scientists partnering with a former Inca city in Perú. This small, rural village of 4,000 people will welcome a Geoscientists Without Borders team to help build a reservoir and irrigation canal network that will benefit 120 farmers. But their work seeks to not only directly impact these families, but support each generation of Zuritaneos that come after and contribute to the scientific understanding that will benefit the world.

Frank Arnott Award 2.0

Team registration for the Frank Arnott Award opens on July 1, 2019.

Frank Arnott (1951-2009) was an exceptional exploration industry leader who championed innovative techniques that maximised the value of multidisciplinary data underpinning exploration campaigns worldwide.

The award is intended to provide students with industry relevant learning experiences utilising modern, pre-competitive datasets from around the world. The outcome will build a sustainable supply of enthusiastic, skilled geoscientists that can steer the mineral industry in the future. The Frank Arnott challenge is open to students who are either currently enrolled in undergraduate earth science degree or post-graduate with less than 3 years industry experience. The challenge also encourages participating teams to be multi-disciplinary in that they comprise of earth scientists, engineers and data scientists, etc.

In 2018, Australian teams did rather well in the first competition, and the award is an excellent opportunity for students and young professionals.

Please see additional details on the website: www.pdac.ca/members/students/faa/background

Western Australia Joint Industry Mentoring Program

The annual Joint Industry Mentoring Program was launched in Perth on Wednesday 27th March. This year the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA), Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Petroleum Club of Western Australia (PCWA), Subsea Energy Australia (SEA), Engineers Australia (EA) and the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) were proudly joined by Women in Subsea Engineering(WISE), and in what was the biggest kick-off event yet.

In the EA auditorium, which was bursting at its seams, the audience settled in to an interactive evening discussing the importance of mentoring, analysing why they were there, and importantly what people could give to their mentor or mentee. Amy Jacobson presented on the SMARTER goals (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Timely, Emotional and Rewarding), and stressed the importance of identifying those emotional drivers which ultimately help achieve goals. Amy also helped define the structure of the mentoring sessions, invaluable advice as the program moves forward.

Mentorship program participants at the workshop on 27th March

With representation from eight petroleum industry societies, it was also an evening of networking; reconnecting with industry colleagues and making new connections. Invaluable assets for a meaningful career, which is a huge part of what this program is about.

The venue, again hosted by EA, was fantastic and provided a great atmosphere and facilities for our speaker Amy Jacobson.

The event was full of information and insight, and excitingly opened up a huge amount of questions and new areas for our mentors and mentees to explore.

This year's mentoring program is set to be not only the biggest by way of participants, but also by way of content. Stay tuned for regular updates on the program, there will be some great stories to tell.

The next event is a Self-awareness workshop, also facilitated by Amy Jacobson, will be held on May 9th.

By the Joint Industry Mentoring Committee

Branch upcoming events

Details about ASEG events can be found on the ASEG website.

EAGE courses in WA

Find out more about the EAGE - European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers Education days in late June and early July here

For a more complete calendar of events see Preview

The third and fourth issues for 2019 are well under way with a variety of papers accepted for them. The AEM special issue is also progressing well with another paper accepted. We have a number of articles just posted online and a couple of them my caught my eye, but then again I am a little biased towards papers on magnetics...

One on a comparison of geophysical inversion programs run on some aeromagnetic data by Marc Vallée and co-authors and the other one is by Li and colleagues on locating magnetic sources using magnetic tensor data.

Cheers and enjoy your reading.

Dr Mark Lackie

Exploration Geophysics Editor

Mark.Lackie@mq.edu.au

A reminder that the latest (April) issue of Preview can be found online at https://www.aseg.org.au/publications/PVCurrent In addition to the usual news and commentary, this issue features two articles. The first, by Brian Kennett, Richard Chopping and Richard Blewett, introduces us to their recently released book The Australian continent: A geophysical synthesis. The second article, by Alison Kirkby, expands on a proposal by the MT community to establish metadata standards for time series MT.

The next (June) issue of Preview will be available online in early June.

Proposed contributions for future issues can be submitted by email to the editor at previeweditor@aseg.org.au

Enjoy!!

Lisa Worrall

Preview Editor

PreviewEditor@aseg.org.au

This issue we get to know Dr Chris Wijns. Read on to find out more... To nominate yourself or to recommend someone for the Member Spotlight, please contact communications@aseg.org.au.

1. What is your current role?

I am the Group Geophysicist for First Quantum Minerals, based in West Perth. After years of asking my boss, I've given up asking to be called Chief Geophysicist! Anyway, 'Group' means I can be involved in absolutely every subsidiary and department outside of exploration as well.

2. For how long have you been a geophysicist?

In a practical sense, I started working for Placer Dome in West Africa in 1996.

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

The power to see under the surface without any holes.

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

Just before university enrolments, I visited the architecture, engineering, and geology departments of McGill University. It was Christmas holidays and Architecture and Engineering were closed. The geology professor sent me upstairs to talk to the geophysics professor. So who knows ...?

5. Tell us about your best field meal?

Lunches in a French-run exploration camp in Niger included red wine bottles on the table and crepes for dessert.

6. Where was your best sunrise/sunset location?

I try to avoid being awake for sunrises, but sunset on the beach of a small island off the southeast tip of PNG was pretty special.

7. Your funniest or worst field memory?

My worst field memory is standing thigh-deep in cold water and rain in a northern BC swamp, wondering when the IP crew leader was going to say we could cut the line short and stop planting stakes.

8. What do you do in your spare time?

My three boys are between 7 and 12 years old so I'm waiting for spare time to arrive in my life again.

9. When you are asked 'What's a geophysicist??' or 'What does a geophysicist do?' what is your stock answer?

A geologist who can do math.

10. What is the best way that the ASEG could let the public know about geophysics and its benefit to the everyday life?

Taking geophysics into high schools and elementary schools is effective, and showing uses in archaeology, water exploration, soil moisture/salinity mapping for agriculture, etc., as well as resource exploration and development.

11. Where do you think exploration geophysics will head in the next 10-15 years?

Our ability to see deep or with high resolution outweighs our ability to understand what we see. We need to catch up with technology and partly this means bridging the scale gap between cm-scale drillhole measurements (petrophysical, geochemical, mineralogical) and surface geophysical measurements sampling hundreds of thousands of cubic metre.