July 2016 ESE Newsletter

Ali Al-Menhali is awarded the First place in the PhD category of the 2016 SPWLA Annual Student Presentation Contest

Workshops, science fairs and summer schools: ESE outreach this summer

Contents

Publications
Conferences, Lectures and Seminars
Awards
Outreach
Impact and Media
Departmental Activities
Notices

Publications

Almeida, T. P., Muxworthy, A. R., Kovács,  A., Williams, W., Nagy, L.,Conbhuí, P., Frandsen, C., Supakulopas, R., & Dunin-Borkowski, R. E. (2016). Direct observation of the thermal demagnetization of magnetic vortex structures in non-ideal magnetite recorders. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, doi: 10.1002/2016GL070074.

Gordon P. and Sephton M.A. 2016. Organic matter detection on Mars by pyrolysis-FTIR: an analysis of sensitivity and mineral matrix effects. Astrobiology, doi: 10.1089/ast.2016.1485.

Tennant, J. P., Mannion, P. D. & Upchurch, P. (2016). Evolutionary relationships and systematics of Atoposauridae (Crocodylomorpha: Neosuchia): implications for the rise of Eusuchia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 177: 854–936. doi: 10.1111/zoj.12400.

Lang, P.S., Paluszny, A., Zimmerman, R.W. (2016) Evolution of fracture normal stiffness due to pressure dissolution and precipitation. International Journal of Rock Mechanics & Mining Sciences. DOI 10.1016/j.ijrmms.2016.06.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2016.06.004

Lei, Q., Latham, J.-P., & Xiang, J. (2016). Implementation of an empirical joint constitutive model into finite-discrete element analysis of the geomechanical behaviour of fractured rocks. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, doi: 10.1007/s00603-016-1064-3.

Montgomery W., Bromiley G.B., Sephton M. A., (2016) The nature of organic records in impact excavated rocks on Mars, Scientific Reports, in press 

Montgomery W., Watson J. S., Potiszil C., Sephton M.  A., (2016) Sporopollenin, a natural copolymer, is robust under high hydrostatic pressure, Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, doi: 10.1002/macp.201600142 in press

Montgomery W., Sephton M.A., (2016) Pressure Effects In Polycyclic Aromatic Nitrogenated Heterocycles (Panhs): Diagnostic Qualities And Cosmobarometry Potential, Astrophysical Journal, doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/819/1/64

Najorka, J., Lewis, J.M.T., Spratt J. and Sephton M.A. 2016. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of synthetic sodium-hydronium jarosite, Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 43, 377–386. doi: 10.1007/s00269-016-0802-0.

Reeve, M. T., Jackson, C. A.-L., Bell, R. E., Magee, C. & Bastow, I. D. (2016) The Stratigraphic Record of Pre-breakup Geodynamics: Evidence from the Barrow Delta, offshore Northwest Australia. Tectonics. doi:10.1002/2016TC004172.

Conferences, Lectures and Seminars

The Organic Geochemistry Lab hosted the 27th Meeting of the British Organic Geochemical Society on 13-14 July. 

Adriana Paluszny gave an invited talk on July 13th, 2016, via Skype, at the 13th International Congress on Numerical Methods in Engineering, Caracas, Venezuela. Her talk was in Spanish, and was entitled “Modelación numérica de propagación e interacción de fracturas 3D en medios isotrópicos”. 

The following conference papers were presented at the 12 Eurpean SOFC & SOC Forum in Lucerne 5-8 July. Ruiz-Trejo E., Bertei A., Maserati A., Boldrin P. & Brandon N. P. Cermet membrane reactors for oxygen separation with low silver content (Oral presentation). Bertei A., Ruiz-Trejo E., Tariq F. , Yufit V., Kareh K. & Brandon N. P. Simulation of the electrochemical impedance response of SOFC anodes: from the microstructural reconstruction to the physically-based modeling (Oral presentation) Tariq F. , Yufit V., An X., Cohen E., Kareh K., Bertei A., Ruiz-Trejo E. & Brandon N. P. Tomography - beyond the pretty pictures to numbers for 3D SOFC electrodes. (Oral presentation) Kareh K., Ruiz-Trejo E., Bertei A., Tariq F. , Yufit V.  & Brandon N. P. Model-based design and 3D characterization of a SOFC electrode microstructure.(Poster presentation)

Mojgan Hadi Mosleh attended the 12th World Congress on Computational Mechanics in Seoul, South Korea (24-29 July 2016) and presented an extended work of her PhD research with the title of “Chemically Coupled Deformation in Coal and Degradation of Flow Properties”. The cost of the trip and conference registration was covered by an Arthur-Holmes Centenary Research grant, received in March 2016.

Awards

Ali Al-Menhali was awarded the First place in the PhD category of the 2016 SPWLA Annual Student Presentation Contest on end of June in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ali is a PhD student under the supervision of Sam Krevor.

PhD student Isobel Macaky has been awarded an SCI scholarship of £5,000 over two years to support her studies in Enhanced Coarse Particle Flotation. In addition to the scholarship, she will benefit from publishing opportunities, access to a high-calibre network to help launch her career, and opportunities to present her work and raise her profile within the scientific community

Jan Cilliers was presented with the Futers Gold Medal at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining Premier Awards Dinner held on 12 July. 

Outreach

The last few months have been very busy, with the department hosting numerous workshops and our Outreach Coordinator Sarah Dodd representing the department at several science fairs and making numerous school visits before the schools broke up for summer.  These included visits to Queen Mary’s College, Loughborough Grammar School, Tiffin School, William Morris Sixth Form, St George’s Weybridge and several visits to Bexley Grammar School.   

On 4 July Sarah Dodd and Matt Genge attended the Big Bang Science Fair at Sutton Grammar School hosting a busy stand on Hunting for Meteorites and Exploring Mars, with many students amazed by the meteorites on show.  A week later, Sarah Dodd attended a STEM event hosted this time at Westminster Academy.  Students from a number of schools, including a number of guest primary schools, had twenty minute slots from 9am-3pm to learn about a selection of different rocks and fossils which included a shelly limestone, a Garnet-Mica Schist and Obsidian (little did Sarah know that the lump of Obsidian would prove a star attraction thanks to the computer game Minecraft)!

The department also held two Earth Science Taster Days this month on the 11 and 25 July, welcoming over 30 potential students in Yr11 and Yr12 to the department for each.  Sarah Dodd, Emma Passmore, Craig Magee, Philippa Mason, Matt Genge and Rebecca Bell were all involved with these highly successful and interactive days, alongside a host of our student ambassadors who helped throughout the day. The days were packed full of activities and workshops on a range of topics with the aim being to highlight the true breadth of Earth Sciences.  

On 19  and 20 July Mike Streule and Rob Lowther hosted the Engineering Summer School for girls giving hands on presentations and lectures into Mountain building in Tibet and Panning for Gold. The 60 students participated in a number of activities throughout the workshops including compressing a series of sand layers as an analogue for the collision of two continental plates. 

To bring the month to a close on 27 July Emma Passmore and Peter Fitch gave a successful new workshop “Between a rock and a hard place: from holes to hydrocarbons”, as part of the Year 10 Insights Summer School. Twenty participants looked at maps, thin sections and rock porosity in this hands-on workshop.

Chris Jackson ventured beyond the London travel zones to give a talk to the Reading Geological Society on 4 July. His talk was entitled ‘Terra infirma: what has salt tectonics done for us’. His talk included videos, music, salt, and a picture of Jeremy Hunt…

Impact and Media

Sara Budinis of the Sustainable Gas Institute published article “Unlocking unburnable carbon: CCS and the carbon bubble” in Adjacent Oil and Gas online.

Chris Jackson was interviewed on Undersampled Radio, a podcast/videocast about geoscience, technology and, well, quite a lot of other random stuff. The YouTube video of the interview can be found here. A podcast version, can be found here: http://bit.ly/2aeakTd

Departmental Activities

The Department would again like to thank everyone that took part in the celebration of the end of Ramadan that was held during an extended coffee hour on the 8 July. The cake went down very well and we hope that everyone took something away from the occasion (even if it was just a piece of cake)!

Notices

On 1 August Mark Sephton took over as Head of the Department. For the last five years Jan Cilliers’ excellent leadership has seen ESE go from strength to strength. This was proven by recent performance in independent rankings. The results of the 2017 Complete University Guide, probably the most authoritative ranking of universities and subject in the UK, placed Geology and Geophysics first. We overtook Cambridge and stayed well ahead of Oxford, St Andrews and Durham. Mark’s goal will be to keep us at the top of the UK rankings, and to grow further our international reputation through research of the highest quality.

The Sustainable Gas Institute welcome new staff member Julia Sachs. Julia is now working on the MUSE energy systems model. Her research interests include mathematical programming, modelling, optimization, system dynamics and control theory.

The Sustainable Gas Institute is advertising for a Research Associate. For more details click here