b'ASEG Honours and AwardsFeatureASEG Honours and AwardsThe ASEG awards for 2023 were announced at a presentationPhils early studies served to inform him how common ceremony held in conjunction with the AEGC 2023 in Brisbaneit is that rocks are partially or completely remagnetised, in March. through weathering or heating/cooling during burial/uplift. Rather than being a negative, he concentrated on turning this extra information into a positive. He became focussed ASEG Gold Medal: Phil Schmidt on methodologies to obtain reliable rock/palaeomagnetic The ASEG Gold Medal is awarded from time to time fordata. This allowed him to refine the Australian APWP and exceptional and highly distinguished contributions to thepalaeolatitudes, which have been a primary research topic science and practice of geophysics by a Member, resultingfor him through the years. His work has elucidated how in wide recognition within the geoscientific community.remanent magnetism can be changed and overprinted over The ASEG President Elect announced at the ASEG Awardstime, with key papers on thermal overprinting in Southeast Ceremony held at the AEGC in Brisbane that the ASEG GoldAustralia and how it relates to the burial/uplift, which led to Medal has been awarded in 2023 to Dr Phil Schmidt. high coal ranks and, afterwards, the Blue Mountains west of Sydney for instance. He looked at various geological areas in This award specifically recognises Phils exceptional andSoutheast Australia that were not completely overprinted to distinguished contributions to the science and practiceobtain data that looked through the overprinting. In 1990, of geophysics in Australia and internationally, through hisPhil co-edited a special issue of Tectonophysics and published leading-edge research and developments in the theory anda key paper on the reliability, limitations and strengths of practical application of rock magnetism/palaeomagnetism,APWPs.and for his significant contributions to the ASEG over manyPhil also researched the palaeomagnetism of Proterozoic years. rocks focussing on the Adelaide Geosyncline and the Phil obtained his BSc (Hons) from the University of NewHamersley Basin looking at the Late Proterozoic part of the England in 1973, and his PhD in geophysics from the AustralianAPWP to better understand the tectonic movement of the National University in 1976. Following this, he took on a post- Australian plate and also to constrain palaeolatitudes of doctoral position in Ottawa with the Earth Physics Branch ofLate Precambrian glacial deposits. With George Williams the Canadian Department of Mines and Energy, focussed on(ex-BHP geologist, now emeritus fellow at Adelaide the application of palaeomagnetism to Precambrian tectonicUniversity) Phil showed glaciations from that time were problems. Phil returned to Australia in 1978 to work with Brianunequivocally equatorial/low-latitude. With his close Embleton in Ken McCrackens CSIRO Division of Mineral Physics,colleague of 40 years standing, David Clark, Phil studied Sydney, focussing on the application of rock magnetismthe rock/palaeomagnetism, including the anisotropy to mineral exploration and building a magnetic propertyof magnetic susceptibility, of Hamersley Basin banded database. iron formations. This work was crucial to understanding the magnetic anomalies of banded iron formations and After joining the CSIRO Phil applied his solid-earth geophysicsthe early Australian APWP. With Mark Lackie, Phil used skills to add an extra dimension in the study of appliedpalaeomagnetism and laser micrometry to measure magnetics, tackling a broad range of topics from analysingdirections of stress relaxation in drill core to infer stress the magnetic petrology of rocks to aid the interpretationorientation in Australian coal fields.of magnetic surveys to using differential vector and tensor magnetometers to define the source of magnetic anomalies.Phil has published on methods to improve the cleaning This breadth of research has had a significant impact onand analysis of palaeomagnetic data and was part of the geophysical community and has greatly aided ouran international group that looked at low temperature interpretation of magnetics and the causes of magneticdemagnetisation of magnetite bearing rocks to preferentially anomalies. eliminate remanence noise carried by multi-domains allowing a more realistic thermal remanence acquisition history to be Phil remained with the CSIRO, reaching the level of Chiefunravelled from the remaining single domain grains. Low Research Scientist before retiring in 2012. Phil has publishedtemperature demagnetisation is now a routine demagnetisation over 130 refereed publications, 100 conference papers and overtechnique used in palaeomagnetic analysis.50 CSIRO investigation reports. The research topics covered by Phil are broad, ranging from solid earth projects, such asApplication of magnetic techniques to aid in geophysical analysis techniques to improve palaeomagnetic data throughexploration: since he started at the CSIRO, Phil was involved in to applied geophysical projects. Phils research can be dividedthe measurement and analysis of rock magnetic properties, in into two major parts, 1) palaeomagnetism/rock magnetism andsupport of the needs of the exploration industry. He produced understanding the Australian Apparent Polar Wander Path andor co-authored numerous Investigation Reports covering a 2) the improvement of the magnetic method to aid geophysicalwide range of potentially economic styles of mineralisation. exploration. These reports allowed measured physical properties to be used in companys analysis of their aeromagnetic data. As Palaeomagnetism: Phil has published leading edge researchthe CSIRO magnetics group, led by Phil, routinely measured on palaeomagnetism from when he completed his PhD inthe remanence and magnetic anisotropy of rocks, these 1976, through to the present day. He has mostly focussed onproperties became understood by industry and became Australian rocks, from very young units (Cainozoic) to very oldmore commonly requested by companies. Phil worked on rocks (Proterozoic), producing results that are key in defininganalysing differential vector magnetometer surveys as well as the Australian Apparent Polar Wander Path (APWP). the construction of DVMs in collaboration with John Stanleys APRIL 2023 PREVIEW 44'