b'Education matters Education mattersSo, it was not long before I became quiteASU is still one of the leading centres keen on mineralogy and what we mightfor HRTEM and development of many learn about geological processes fromother electron beam techniques. This an understanding of crystal structuresfocus attracted researchers from many and physical properties. I completed fullbackgroundsmineralogy, meteoritics, majors in both chemistry and geologycrystallography, solid state physics and but did not finish off the second degreechemistry, metallurgy, thermodynamics, because my Honours year covered bothgeochronology/geochemistry, economic with a geochemistry/crystallographygeology, air pollution etc. etc. To be in focus mapping the megacrysts ofan environment where the intersection Arthurs Peak. Uni holidays during thoseof not only scientific disciplines but studies were spent on fieldwork in Northalso of rapidly evolving technologies, Marina PervukhinaQueensland with local explorationwere being pursued by outstanding Associate Editor for Educationcompanies and earning just enough toresearchers, was exceptional. This nexus Marina.Pervukhina@csiro.au cover the next years car repair costs. delivering outcomes from knowing the science while having an eye on emerging Geophysics is crucial to ourtechnologiescontinues to be part of understanding of planet Earthmy professional activities today.Improving our education system and was a torchbearer forThe focus of my latter years in the Our special guest in this issue is Dr Ianthe explosion of geologicalUSA at NASA Johnson Space Centre Mackinnon, Professor at the Centreknowledge during the 50s andand the University of New Mexico for Clean Energy Technologies and(Dept of Geology)became the use of Practices at the Queensland University60s that continues today HRTEM and Analytical EM to understand of Technology. He is answering myextraterrestrial minerals in meteorites questions about educational needs in theMy Honours project set me up for aand interplanetary dust particles. field of geoscience. more detailed PhD study on the crystalSometimes this meant stripping down a chemistry of pyroxene and amphiboleTEM to modify and improve elemental megacrysts from Arthurs Peaktheanalyses or developing new sample assumption being that we could estimatepreparation techniques to benefit the formation conditions of megacrystsinterpretation. So, very hands-on with by interpreting cation site occupanciesinstrumentation and with targeting next in these minerals. Among the manygeneration tools or equipment.knowledgeable and accessible academics at JCU at the time, both Les Power andMy mineralogical instincts became Chris Cuff strongly encouraged this multi- finely tuned as these extraterrestrial disciplinary forayunusual in Australia inmaterialsat least those considered those days into exploring the combinedpart of early Solar System formationtools of chemistry and geology. This firstinclude layer silicates, or clays. Imaging of my many cross- or multi-disciplinarythese very fine-grained, beam sensitive Ian Mackinnonstudies required single crystal diffractionminerals required a bit of dexterity with MP: Ian, before we start talking abouttools (neutron and X-ray) only availablethe instruments of the day. This led to education, can you tell us a bit morethen at Lucas Heights (ANSTO). The plusanalyses of other aluminosilicates such as about your background? with this arrangement were many lessonszeolites and mixed layer clays common in the physics of diffraction as well as inin catalytic conversion of hydrocarbons IM: I commenced my undergraduatepractical data collection and analysis fromand in conventional reservoir formations. science degree (physics, chemistry, purethe great onsite physics and computingFrom my own educational perspective, maths and applied maths) at James Cookstaff. At the time, it also helped thatmixing with meteoritics and Solar System University in the days when a scholarshipId taken second year probability andresearchers meant exposure to a wide was required to pay for the privilege statistics as part of that unfinished secondrange of disciplinesfrom astrophysics that is, before Whitlam-era free education.degree; a useful background for thesisand planetary systems to geochronology, I scraped through first year but foundwork and in later life. atmospheric physics, cosmochemistry chemistry relatively easy (my high schooland remote sensing. I enjoyed learning chemistry teacherMr Bonamini - hasBecause of my interest in crystallography,to speak the language(s) of different to be credited with that!) and, in secondit was natural to be caught up in thedisciplines to try to understand what year, I decided to start on a full geologyexcitement of the first atomic imagestheir paradigms were in order to see if programme as well the other sciences.of minerals using high resolutionthere was a way to collaborate to solve As you would probably know, naturestransmission electron microscopyspecific problems. After all, we were chemistry is much more intriguing and(HRTEM). Consequently, I decamped tochasing common objectives.informativeparticularly, as I learnedArizona State University (ASU) where later, when interpreting human-derivedas it happenedquite a contingent ofOn returning to Queensland, I elected to solid-state chemistry, now often seen asAussies had established themselvestranslate that background knowledge part of materials science. at the Centre for Solid State Sciences.into something that was useful for 27 PREVIEW AUGUST 2023'