Recent publications, events and updates in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering

Content

Publications
Conferences and Talks
Awards
Research Activity
Workshops
Outreach – ESE at the Great Exhibition Road Festival
PhD Vivas
New Staff

Publications

Magee, C., Muirhead, J., Schofield, N., Walker, R.J., Galland, O., Holford, S., Spacapan, J., Jackson, C.A-L., & McCarthy, W. (2019). Structural signatures of igneous sheet intrusion propagation. Journal of Structural Geology, 125, 148-154.

Rotevatn, A., Jackson, C.A-L., Tvedt, A.B.M., Bell, R.E., & Blækkan, I. (2019). How do normal faults grow? Journal of Structural Geology, 125, 174-184.

Conferences and Talks

On the 4 June, Rebekah Moore and Mark Rehkämper attended the 35th International Conference on Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH). Rebekah gave an oral presentation on "Understanding cadmium uptake by cacao plants using isotope analysis". She showed the results of two collaborative projects (with partners in Reading, Toulouse and Quito) on finding practical and sustainable solutions for farmers to help reduce bean cadmium levels, in line with new EU regulations.

Sanjeev Gupta, Steve Hicks, Dick Selley and alumnus Susie Maidment gave talks at the Mole Valley Geological Society 40th Birthday Geo-Extravaganza on 8 - 9 June 2019. Selley R.C.’s talk is available in GA Magazine. 18.2. 30-31.

Chris Jackson spent the week of 17 – 21 June at Woods-Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Cape Cod, US serving as the H. Burr Steinbach Visiting Scholar. During his visit, Chris gave two talks on the use of seismic reflection data in basin analysis. He also hosted a round-table discussion with students about the pros and cons of academic life.

Robert Zimmerman gave a talk entitled "Semi-analytical Method for Tracking the Evolution of Borehole Breakouts” at the Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference at California Institute of Technology, on 19 June. The co-author was PhD student Beni Setiawan.

Chris Jackson was a keynote speaker at the SALTGIANT workshop, Trieste, Italy (24 - 25 June). SALTGIANT is an EU-funded Industry Training Network project, focused on understanding the formation of the Mediterranean Salt Giant, one of the largest salt deposits on Earth. Chris presented work on the stratigraphy and structure of layered evaporites in the Santos Basin, offshore Brazil.

Adriana Paluszny and Robert Zimmerman gave talks on 26 June at the 2019 Symposium of the American Rock Mechanics Association in New York City – a notable annual rock mechanics conference. Adriana's talk was entitled "Fully-coupled three-dimensional finite element simulations of the interaction between a hydraulic fracture and a pre-existing natural fracture", with co-authors Omar Almulhim, Robin Thomas, and Robert Zimmerman. Robert's talk was entitled "The Implications of using Anisotropic Elasticity and Fully-Triaxial Failure Criteria for Borehole Stability Analysis in Shales", with co-author Beni Setiawan. 

Awards

Ashkan Kavei attended the International Flow Battery Forum (IFBF) in Lyon, where he represented Imperial college and RFC Power, a spin out from Imperial. At IFBF, Ashkan won an award for giving the best pitch, a pitch that brought many interests and collaborations for the future.

Research Activity

Pablo Brito-Parada and Stephen Neethling attended the kick-off meeting of the H2020 project 'FineFuture' in Dresden, on 5 - 6 June. The three-year project received over €6.2 million in funding from the EU. The project’s consortium of industry and academic partners seeks to develop a fundamental understanding as well as technological solutions for the separation of fine mineral particles using froth flotation.

Workshops

Chris Jackson contributed to a one-day workshop for 60 Year 10 pupils from Plumstead Manor School, a state-run community school in Greenwich. The workshop, which took place on the 3rd of June, was organised by Dr Stella Pedrazzini. It featured talks and lab-based practicals ran by other academic staff from across the Faculty of Engineering.

Outreach - ESE at Great Exhibition Road Festival

Rebekah Moore gave a "day in the life" talk for the Great Exhibition Road Festival, where she talked broadly about her life as a biogeochemist, followed by answering questions from the audience. She spoke on the thrills and challenges associated with high-precision, metal-free lab work and how many disciplines can come together to solve global problems including, diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and land contamination.

Philippa Mason and several ESE undergraduate students, Christ Carter, Rhian O’Callaghan, Naomi Tan, Jiano Pulikal, Rita Kounoudis, Zhendan Shang and Katie Rhodes, had a successful weekend at the EnVision stand of the Great Exhibition Road Festival. In the Space Zone of the Festival, Philippa and her team engaged people of all ages as they promoted the EnVision Venus mission, remote sensing, ESE and planetary geoscience in general. Their inflatable Venus was a successful attraction to entice people, as they spoke to nearly 200 interested youngsters (and potential new scientists) across the two days of the festival.

Read about all the ESE activities and events that took place at the festival.

PhD Vivas

Congratulations to the following who passed their PhD vivas in June and July: Alex Hughes, Francesco Palci, Izzy Mackay, and Peipei Wang.

Izzy Mackay was supervised by Pablo Brito-Parada and Jan Cilliers, and her examiners were Professor Ann Muggeridge and Professor Kerstin Eckert from Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Germany. Izzy has now started a position at University College London as a Teaching Fellow.

New Staff

Yuhua Xia – Started on the 20th May as a Research Assistant
Vilelmini Karantoni – Started on the 3rd June as a Research Technician
Jiashun Yao – Started on the 24th June as a Research Associate
Catalina Pino-Munoz – Started on the 1st July as a Research Assistant
Tara Salter – Started on the 1st July as a Research Associate
Ying Gao – Started on the 1st July as a Research Assistant