ASEG news - Issue 21, 20th December 2019

Dear Members,

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

Holiday greetings from the ASEG President
ASEG at AGU
STEM Ambassadors Program: Apply Now
PDF copies of Exploration Geophysics volumes
Snapshot of recent ASEG Branch events
News from the states
Upcoming events (National and International)
The latest in Exploration Geophysics
What's new in Preview?
Member Spotlight: Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick
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.

Holiday greetings from the ASEG President

Very Best Christmas and New Year Wishes to our ASEG Members and Corporate Partners around the world, and a BIG thank you to our dedicated ASEG volunteers. Looking forward to ASEG's 50th Anniversary 2020!

Ted Tyne

ASEG President

ASEG at AGU

Whilst overseas, Kate Robertson represented Marina Costelloe and the rest of the ASEG Federal Executive at the AGU Fall Workshop 2019 in San Francisco with a poster highlighting how the ASEG embraces diversity. You can view a digital version of the poster on the ASEG website, and also read the ASEG diversity statement here (scroll down). We are always looking for ways to improve, please contact the ASEG Secretariat at secretary@aseg.org.au if you have any suggestions.

STEM ambassadors program: Apply Now

If you're passionate about evidence-based, science-informed policy, apply now to become a STEM Ambassador!

The STEM Ambassador Program connects STEM professionals with Federal decision makers. This is an amazing opportunity for you to help bridge the gap between science and parliament.

You'll work directly with your local MP to help build understanding and engagement between science and parliament, and encourage the involvement of science in Australian politics and decision making.

The program is seeking applicants from a wide range of science, technology, and engineering jobs. STEM Ambassadors are provided appropriate training and support by Science & Technology Australia.

Read the story from STEM Ambassador Candice Raeburn who is working together with Peter Khalil MP, Member for Wills.

If you have any enquiries about the program please contact:

Peter Derbyshire | Policy and Projects Officer | 02 6257 2891 | peter.derbyshire@sta.org.au

PDF copies of Exploration Geophysics volumes

Following member requests for PDF volumes of Exploration Geophysics, ASEG are interested in establishing how much interest there is from the current membership. A PDF volume of each edition could be made available on the ASEG website in a similar fashion to Preview. Should you have an interest in this, please complete the poll here (will take less than a minute). We appreciate your feedback.

A snapshot of some of the recent ASEG events

SA/NT Branch annual Honours Night sponsored by Santos:

On the evening of the 12th December, the ASEG SA/NT branch hosted their annual Honours night combined with Christmas party, generously sponsored by Santos. Bonnie Lodwick from Santos spoke about the geophysics programs within Santos followed by four students who each gave fantastic presentations on their honours projects. The speakers, their affiliation, and their project title are as follows:

James Brown, Geology and Geophysics, The University of Adelaide

Analysis of fault growth in the Otway Basin using 3-D seismic analysis

Celina Sanso, Geology and Geophysics, The University of Adelaide

Compositional controls on the thermal conductivity of metamorphic rocks

Matt Linke, Geology and Geophysics, The University of Adelaide

Thermal Isostasy - Modelling Antarctic Surface Heat Flow

Luke Haig-Moir, Australian School of Petroleum, The University of Adelaide

Design and Optimisation of Multi-stage Hydraulic Fracturing of a Horizontal Well in a Deep Coal Reservoir in the Cooper Basin, South Australia

Congratulations to all of our speakers, but in particular to James Brown for winning the best presentation, and Celina Sanso, for runner-up. James and Celina both took home an ASEG sponsored monetary prize, and all four student speakers took home a bottle of the ASEG wine.

NSW Annual Trivia Night

The ASEG NSW Annual Trivia Night was held on Wednesday 11th of December.The night was kindly hosted and MC'd by ASEG NSW member Mike Smith.

The questions were a mix of general knowledge and geoscience related questions.

Despite the scores being tied up at 8 points per team at the halfway point, Team 4 managed to nab the win with several correct (lucky multiple choice guesses) at the tail end of the evening.

Congratulations to the winners (Team 4) and runners up (Team 3).

The prizes comprised several exploration and oil themed 'short' reads provided by Bridgeport, and geological maps kindly provided by Geological Survey of New South Wales.

NSW November technical evening:

Andrea talked about CSIRO Manufacturing branch's recent work on chemiresistor sensors for the purpose of measuring analytes, using an example of assessing the presence of hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX)) in groundwater monitoring wells at petrol stations, with the potential to undertake remote monitoring. Pictured: Keith Leslie (CSIRO), Andrea Sosa Pintos (CSIRO Manufacturing) and Steph Kovach (NSW ASEG Secretary)

Branch upcoming events

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

For a more complete calendar of events see Preview

Hi EG readers,

Wishing you all a Merry Xmas and a great New Year. With my Editors hat firmly on, please consider in 2020 writing that paper you have always wanted to do, I am very keen on getting some more case histories in 2020. Remember that Issue 1 for 2020 is the AEM special issue, so not long now before you have a lot of reading to do.

The current issue can be found here.

To access Exploration Geophysics articles free of charge, please log into the ASEG website and click on the link on the publications page.

Enjoy your reading.

Cheers

Mark

Dr Mark Lackie

Exploration Geophysics Editor

Mark.Lackie@mq.edu.au

The December issue of Preview is now available online

This Christmas issue of Preview is bulging at the seams. We are blessed, once again, with a Don Emerson special - this time on "Pyrite- the firestone". We say goodbye to Barry Drummond, but celebrate ANSIR, just one component of Barry's rich legacy to Australian geophysics. We also say goodbye to Sheldon Breiner. We look to the future with Michael Asten (Education matters) and our annual summary of theses in geophysics submitted to Australian universities. David Denham (Canberra observed) reports on the latest figures on business investment in R&D. Mike Hatch (Environmental geophysics) and Yusen Ley Cooper revisit EMusic. Terry Harvey (Minerals geophysics) muses about changes in how exploration companies tap in geophysical expertise. Mick Micenko (Seismic window) reviews stratal slicing. Tim Keeping (Data trends) guides novice users through petrophysical databases, and Ian James (Webwaves) discusses web page auditing using Lighthouse.

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 month we get to know Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick.

1. What is your current role?

I'm currently the chief geophysicist for IGO. We're looking for nickel and copper mineral deposits to support the growing electric vehicle market.

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

Being part of an exploration team using a variety of tools to effectively explore. Looking at ways of improving the techniques and technology is the best part of my job. My job has taken me to remote locations across the globe and has provided me with some unique and wonderful experiences, such as snowmobiling across frozen lakes in the Athabasca Basin, Canada.

3. Tell us about your best field meal?

I once worked with Hiroshi Omoto up at the Trendall Locality in the Pilbara, Western Australia. A caretaker at a near-by bentonite mine under care and maintenance provided us with a sashimi grade tuna for the week (he used to be a fisherman!). Despite the remoteness, dinner was incredible, accompanied with stunning sunset landscapes and good red wine.

4. What are you reading at the moment?

I'm re-listening to "13 minutes to the Moon" a BBC podcast. Andrew Foley from Goldfields put me on to it and its an amazing series that captures exploration, leadership, teamwork and safety of the amazing story of the moon landing. I'm encouraging everyone to listen to it too!

5. What made you decide to be a geophysicist?

In year 10 at high school I won a science award and was flown up to BHP's Mt Whaleback Deposit. When I was in their exploration office I saw my first aeromagnetic image, and when I asked someone what it was, a geologist replied "Its scientific art produced by our geophysicist. We use it to find stuff". I was hooked!

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

We kinda x-ray the earth. Some of us use oversize stud-finders to look for base metal deposits either from the air or on the ground. Similarly, to radiography helping medical doctors diagnose ailments, we provide images and models of the earth to exploration teams to aid in discovery.

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

We should visit schools and talk to students more. Tell an interesting story to a child and they will tell their parents. We need to demonstrate that geophysics is used for many applications- looking for groundwater, oil and gas, mineral deposits, environmental and engineering problems.