ASEG Branch news Western Australia The WA Branch finished off 2018 with our Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Christmas Party on 12 December. I take this opportunity to welcome two new Committee members Jane Cunneen and Mark Brailey. 2018 saw the Branch host a number of technical and social events, including a SEG DISC seismic workshop (Kurt Malfurt), talks by SEG Distinguished Lecturer (Satish Singh) and Honorary Lecturer (Mazin Farouki), ASEG-PESA Young Professional speaker nights and mentoring programme, and the ASEG- PESA Golf Day. These were in addition to our monthly technical nights, which comprised a range of topics including FWI, passive seismic, hydrogeology, and exploration techniques in mining operations. In 2018 we received a strong level of sponsorship support for our Tech Night events and we continued to keep our venue costs down by using the CGG facilities. We look forward to ongoing support from all our sponsors in 2019. We congratulate Alex Costall (PhD in geophysics, Curtin University) on winning the ASEG WA Student Award for 2018. We also congratulate Alejandro Sanchez (MSc in geophysics, Curtin University) for winning the ASEG WA Branch best student presenter at our event on 28 November 2018. The calendar for 2019 is starting to be populated, including presentations by SEG Honorary Lecturer Boris Gurevich, Andrew Long, Richard Chopping, and Marina Costelloe. We are looking forward to the return of OzSTEP workshops, which are currently being developed by our federal Education Committee, and a planned SEG DL short course. The Branch is also excited to be hosting the AEGC 2019 at Crown Burswood in early September 2019. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 2018 WA Branch Committee and event volunteers who work tirelessly to bring you a diverse range of technical and social programmes; specifically Matt Owers (WA Secretary), Mat Cooper (WA Treasurer), Alex Karvelas, Amir Hashempour, Andrew Fitzpatrick, Brett Adams, Brett Harris, Cameron Adams, Carolina Pimentel, Partha Mandal, Shane Mule, and Tim Dean. The activities of the Society would not be possible without these people! Upcoming WA events include: • 13 February Tech night – Richard Chopping will summarise his recent publication“The Australian Continent: a geophysics synthesis” Heather Tompkins wapresident@aseg.org.au Australian Capital Territory The ACT Branch is looking forward to a number of guest speakers and events in 2019. These include: • 4 February – Tim Dean (Curtin University) – Recent Advances in Land Seismic • 7 February – Geoffrey McNamara (MSATT) – Science Mentors ACT • March – ACT Branch Annual General Meeting with guest speaker Kate Selway (ARC Future Fellow, Macquarie University) • 4 April – Federal Executive Annual General Meeting with guest speaker Steve Hill James Goodwin actpresident@aseg.org.au New South Wales In November, Paul Harvey from Environmental Science Solutions presented a talk entitled“Emerging Pollutants and Emerging Problems”. His abstract for the meeting was as follows: In a world where rapid advances in technology call for an ever more diverse range of resources, we are beginning to face a lag in our understanding of environmental pollutants. This talk will look at some of the latest resources required for modern life and the challenges that we face in understanding the environmental fate of these resources, the environmental and human health exposure tolerances and the need for up-to-date environmental regulations. We also need to consider ways to detect and analyse for these emerging pollutants in the environment as many traditional methods are not suitable. This calls for research in the realm of analytical chemistry and physics to improve our capabilities. This talk will explore emerging pollutants such as lithium, PFASs and pharmaceuticals, among others. This topical presentation attracted audience members from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines and was well received by all. In December the NSW Branch of the ASEG put a pause on geophysical technical talks and celebrated upcoming holidays with the annual quiz night. The question topics ranged from general knowledge and events in 2018 to movie trivia, and even a handful of geophysics questions. As with most trivia events, the night was not without controversy, with one of the most difficult questions puzzling even the most experienced members and resulted in the audience wishing they remembered the authors of Applied Geophysics, Edition 1. For those interested, the answer is Telford, W.M., Geldart, L.P., Sheriff, R.E. & Keys, D.A. There was no shortage of prizes or enthusiasm from the audience, and it was a fun night enjoyed by all. The NSW Branch Committee thanks everyone who attended. NSW Members enjoyed a well-deserved break in January and will be back in full 2019 swing with the first technical talk of the year given by Richard Chopping on February 20. An invitation to attend NSW Branch meetings is extended to interstate and international visitors who happen to be in town at that time. Meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month from 5:30 pm at Club York. Meetings notices, addresses and relevant contact details can be found at the NSW Branch website. Stephanie Kovach nswsecretary@aseg.org.au Queensland Jennifer Market visited Brisbane in November and gave the highly informative talk “Diamonds in the Noise – Treasures Lurking in Acoustic Data”. Jennifer is global acoustic advisor to Lloyd’s Register and Kinetic, and her role involves acoustic data processing and interpretation. Jennifer also provides industry training seminars to 8 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2019 ASEG news Branch news