b'Education matters Australia. So, I continued my interest inand secondly, because R&D or RD&D,aim to train a proportion of our future techniques to assess the clay mineralswhen done properly, is another form ofresearch cohort to become what we of Australia (our continents surface, ortargeted education. used to term model-T professionals. The regolith, is dominated by clays) as wellterm is meant to describe persons with a as building characterisation facilitiesTo me, one of the things that weve notstrong disciplinary skillset moderated by at The University of Queensland (UQ)done very well in Australia for the pastan understanding, or perhaps an equally that many other researchers could use;two or three generations, is that wevedeep knowledge, of other disciplines along the lines of the centre Davidnow trained researchers to be very(often closely associated within a broad Cockayne established two decadesmuch about me, about themselves andfield such as geoscience, engineering, earlier at the University of Sydney.their HI value or only about the groupmedicine, manufacturing, The vision was to provide a multi-userdynamics that theyre working in. So,mathematics or energy).materials characterisation facility that alltodays researcher might dig a deeper researchers at UQ could use; rather thanand deeper funnel of enquiry into theirWhich now brings me back to geology lock up an expensive piece of equipmentspecific discipline; in some cases, this isand those broad, interdisciplinary areas for just one special professor or one orbeneficialbut few are trained to takecalled geochemistry and geophysics two fortunate research students. the opportunity to look a little furtherall of which are encompassed in one afieldto look outside the hole thatsway or another by earth (and planetary) the basic skills thatbeen dug. Often this is driven by thesciences. Training in earth sciences is a postgraduates should gain,current day obsession with bibliometricswonderful way to appreciate the truly which, for some reason, seems to beunique location that we inhabit in our the primary and critical skill isassociated with prestige. universe and, more importantly, to gain a capacity for critical thinkingthe skills for interdisciplinary research if without prejudice. Most researchers intuitively know thatthat is a career interest.a single digit performance parameter is This approach has been successfullyrarely a good indicator of quality or ofwouldnt it be great if one day operating at the Centre for Microscopycontribution to the stock of knowledge.we had a Prime Minister with a and Microanalysis at UQ for about thirtyEven in crystallographya quite precise sciencewe use more than onePhD in [insert STEM field]?years now, and I was able to improve andparameter (e.g., GoF, R, R w , NObs) to further refine the model when given theassess the quality of data collection andGeophysics is crucial to our opportunity at the Queensland Universityanalysis for a simplified average modelunderstanding of planet Earth and of Technology (QUT). In the latter case,of a crystal structure (nowadays, datawas a torchbearer for the explosion a wider range of analytical tools (e.g.collection can take about 10 seconds;of geological knowledge during the for genomics, proteomics, histology,compared to two reactor cyclesabout50s and 60s that continues today. The mass spectroscopy, electrochemistry,eight weeksin my student days atInternational Geophysical Year (IGY) in mechanical and physical properties) wereANSTO). So, why do we, particularly in1957 was a stimulus for international included in the service model. The addedAustralia, persist with quite specific termscollaboration to better understand our benefit was that curious researchers(e.g., h-index, FWCI) over very limitedplanet. The IGY precipitated many global from different disciplines could learnperiods of timeto measure researchpractices we take for granted today such about, and gain access to, tools that mayperformance, or to determine promotionas use of satellites and geodesy, remote not typically be used in their field. So,and progress, or to award grants? sensing, plate tectonics, stratospheric fertilisation of new ideasinnovationand ionospheric phenomena; and led to evenis stimulated and delivered.Why is this important? Well, becausekey legacy institutions. For example, the In Australia, we are very fortunate towe live in an increasingly complexIGY led to establishment of the World have similar styles of characterisationworld. All areas of STEM are expandingData Centre, the Antarctic Treaty and facilities at all capital cities and someexponentially; not surprising since ourmany other international initiatives over regional centres; this makes for excellentglobal human population has been doingthe past 60 plus years.performance in many STEM fields. so since the turn of the 20th Century. This approach to sharing expensive,These exponential changes meanBetter understanding of our planet set or multi-disciplinary, research facilitieswe have a greater need for scientists,the stage for solar system exploration of is now not newmany of the NCRIS- engineers, professionals to understandall our planets, their moons and other style initiatives in earth sciences andcomplexity itself and the complex worldbodies such as asteroids and comets. environmental sciences (e.g., AuScope,in which we and other speciesplant,Many say that the book by Rachel Carson, RV Investigator, ACCESS-NRI, ALA, NCI,animal and the three other kingdoms Silent Spring, started the environmental TERN)perform this function and arelive. High school biology students learnmovement in the 1950s. What cemented perhaps underappreciated by many inabout the web of life as context fora global awareness of planet Earth was our communities. how ecosystems succeed or fail. Todaythe colour photo taken by William Anders there are layers and layers of complexcalled Earthrise as he orbited the Moon MP: Ian, from your point of view, whatecosystemsincluding that of researchduring the 1968 Apollo 8 mission. A changes can be made to further improvecommunities. We need to learn how thesephoto that still resonates. For me, thats the education system in Australia insystemsbe they natural, built or virtualreally what inspired many people to think general, and in earth science in particular?work productively and sustainablyabout the fragility of our planet and our together for our future planet. unique place in the universe.IM: Here I will only talk about Research and Development (R&D) becauseSo, to go back to education in theFinally, one more matter for education in firstly, that is my primary experiencebroadest sense of the word, we shouldgeneral. Good science requires excellent AUGUST 2023 PREVIEW 28'