President’s piece My path to exploration geophysics and my involvement with the ASEG from the early foundation era go directly back to Professor Laric Hawkins, one of the founders of the Society, our 1st Gold Medallist, an inspirational teacher and an influential mentor in my undergraduate days and early career. As a consequence, it has been a real pleasure for me to (re) join the ASEG Federal Executive in April 2018 as President-Elect and to immediately experience the strong working partnerships and the positive camaraderie within the Executive team under our inspiring President Marina Costelloe. Our Annual General Meeting, hosted on 4 April by the ACT Branch in the Sir Harold Raggatt Theatre, Geoscience Australia (GA), was a very efficient affair with a large number of guests who joined us to hear our special Guest Speaker, Dr Steve Hill, Chief Scientist GA, present“Welcome to Planet, Continent and Country and why geoscientists like you hold a key to that greeting”. Thank you to all supporting ASEG Members present at the AGM and by proxy, and a big thank you to Dr Steve Hill for his entertaining and compelling address. Congratulations to our newly elected 2019 Federal Executive! Thank you for volunteering to lead our Society as we approach such a key milestone in our history – the 50th Anniversary in 2020. David Annetts, our long-term Webmaster, is now our President-Elect, Danny Burns remains as our Federal Treasurer, and Megan Nightingale continues as Federal Secretary. David, Danny and Megan join me as the listed Directors of our Society. Leslie Atkinson, Marina Pervukhina and Kate Robertson continue as great contributors on the Executive and we welcome to our new team members, Ian James, Tim Dean, Jim Austin and Mark Duffett. The responsibilities for each Executive member are listed in the following pages of Preview. In her President’s piece (Preview 199), Marina touched on some of the achievements of the Federal Executive over the past year. I would like to highlight: • The successful 1st AEGC in 2018; • The active promotion of STEM initiatives and Diversity in Geoscience; • Important leading practice changes to the ASEG Constitution; • Updates to the Code of Ethics and the ASEG Procedures and Policies; • The transition to our new publication arrangement with Taylor & Francis Australia; • A strong programme of communication to Members and beyond through our new ASEG Newsletter and social media platforms; • Development of the AEGC joint conference arrangements with PESA and AIG; • The strengthening our partnerships with international affiliate societies and with the other eight member societies of the Australian Geoscience Council. A HUGE thank you and congratulations to Marina on leading and navigating such a hectic and productive year of change as President – Marina has achieved a great deal, set high standards of business and service performance, and brings high energy and a great leadership culture to the ASEG Executive. Marina has done a fabulous job as President and now as Immediate Past President will continue to support the Executive and our 50th Anniversary preparations. I also want to give high level praise and appreciation to Kim Frankcombe, who stepped down from the ASEG Executive at the recent AGM after a long period of dedicated service. Kim is one of our well known past ASEG Presidents, an ASEG Conference Convenor, and an SEG Councillor. Kim has extraordinary knowledge and experience of the ASEG’s history, business processes, procedures, policies, and a broad and well-connected network in our industry. Kim remains a key liaison point to the ASEG’s Conference Advisory group. Kim is also the ASEG’s hard copy archivist of all ASEG publications plus a lot more. Kim’s contribution is enormously appreciated. Kim now takes on his newly elected role as Secretary of Australia’s geoscience representative body, the Australian Geoscience Council. In preparing a recent presentation to the NSW Branch, I was taken by all of the positive milestones that are lining up for the ASEG in 2019–20: • 50th anniversary of the ASEG • 50th volume of Exploration Geophysics • 40th year of successful exploration geophysics Conferences & Exhibitions, Workshops and Forums • 33rd Year (Issue 200) of Preview • 30th year of the ASEG Research Foundation supporting Australian Honours, MSc and PhD research projects in exploration geophysics • 2nd Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference – AEGC 2019 (with our key partners PESA and AIG) – incorporating the 27th ASEG Geophysical Conference & Exhibition Our Society’s first technical journal was published in September 1970 asThe Bulletin of the ASEGVolume 1, No.1, and continued through to 1984, when it was re- named ExplorationGeophysics. In February 2019Volume 50, Issue 1 of Exploration Geophysics was published on-line, marking a major milestone: continuous quarterly publication of the Society’s technical journal year on year over five decades! From 1970 to 2019, the ASEG has been incredibly fortunate to have ten truly Ted Tyne, Blair McKenzie and Dave Pratt enjoying an ASEG moment at AEGC 2018. ASEG news President’s piece 2 PREVIEW JUNE 2019