An overview of the recent publications, events and exciting work that's been happening in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering.

Contents

Communications Support Roles for PhD Students
Publications
Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars
Upcoming Talk
Research Grants
Awards
ESEA and BHM Events
New Staff
PhD Vivas

Communications Support roles for PhD Students

We thank Jemimah-Sandra Samuel who has been a newsletter editor and webmaster for the past several years!

We are now recruiting for two communications support roles in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, which will suit a postgraduate research student in the Department. Gain communication skills and support the department with these paid roles:

• Website Officer/s to edit the ESE Website
• Newsletter Editor for the monthly ESE News (e.g. ESE July Newsletter)

Interested? Email Victoria Murphy to receive full details about the roles and how to apply!

Publications

Cooke, D.R., Agnew, P., Hollings, P., Baker, M., Chang, Z., Wilkinson, J.J., Ahmed, A., White, N.C., Zhang, L., Thompson, J., Gemmell, J.B. and Chen, H., 2020, Recent advances in the application of mineral chemistry to exploration for porphyry copper–gold–molybdenum deposits: detecting the geochemical fingerprints and footprints of hypogene mineralization and alteration. Geochemistry: Environment, Exploration, Analysis, DOI: 10.1144/geochem2019-039

Kounoudis, R., Bastow, I.D., Ebinger, C.J., Ogden, C.S., Ayele, A., Bendick, R., et al. (2021). Body-wave tomographic imaging of the Turkana Depression: Implications for rift development and plume-lithosphere interactions. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 22, e2021GC009782. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GC009782

P. Lutz and R. W. Zimmerman (2021) The effect of pore shape on the Poisson ratio of porous materials. Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, 26(8), 1191-1203. https://doi.org/10.1177/10812865211023535

Mueller, M., Jacquemyn, C., Walter, B.F., Pederson, C.L., Schurr, S.L., Igbokwe, O.I., Jöns, N., Riechelmann, S., Dietzel, M., Strauss, H. & Immenhauser, A. (2021). Constraints on the preservation of proxy data in carbonate archives – lessons from a marine limestone to marble transect, Latemar, Italy. Sedimentology. https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12939

Pribyl, B., Purewal, S. & Tulsidas, H. (2021). Development of the Petroleum Specifications and Guidelines (PRSG) – A Classification System for the Energy Transition. Presented at the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) ATCE2021 in Dubai, September 2021, SPE205847.

Quintanilla, P., Neethling, S.J., Navia, D., Brito-Parada, P.R. (2021). A dynamic flotation model for predictive control incorporating froth physics. Part I: Model development. Minerals Engineering, 173, 107192. DOI: /10.1016/j.mineng.2021.107192

Quintanilla, P., Neethling, S.J., Mesa, D., Navia, D., Brito-Parada, P.R. (2021). A dynamic flotation model for predictive control incorporating froth physics. Part II: Model calibration and validation. Minerals Engineering, 173, 107190. DOI: /10.1016/j.mineng.2021.107190

Titus, Z., Heaney, C., Jacquemyn, C., Salinas P., Jackson M. D., Pain C. (2021) Conditioning surface-based geological models to well data using artificial neural networks. Comput Geosci. DOI:  10.1007/s10596-021-10088-5

Wang, P. & Brito-Parada, P. R. (2022). Dynamics of a particle-laden bubble colliding with an air-liquid interface. Chemical Engineering Journal 429, 132427. DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2021.132427

Conferences, Talks, Lectures, Seminars

Pablo Brito-Parada, Diego Mesa and Paulina Quintanilla, from the Advanced Mineral Processing Research Group, participated in the International Conference on Raw Materials and Circular Economy. The conference took place in Athens, Greece, on 5-9 September.

Diego Mesa gave a talk entitled “ Retrofit designs for the pulp-froth interface: impacts on froth stability, entrainment, and fine particles’ flotation performance”. The presentation was based on his work as a postdoc in the EU funded project "FineFuture".

Paulina Quintanilla gave a talk entitled “Development and validation of a dynamic model for flotation predictive control incorporating froth physics”, which was based on her recent results from her PhD project.

Carl Jacquemyn was invited to give an online seminar for the PESGB - Young Professionals titled “Rapid Reservoir Modelling: Sketch-based geologic modelling coupled with flow diagnostics”. If anyone in ESE wants to try out RRM, feel free to get in touch.

Jamie Wilkinson presented a talk at the Society of Economic Geologists' 100th Anniversary conference (14-17th September) entitled "Propylitization 1865–2020: Historical Perspective and New Paradigm for the Origin of Propylitic Alteration in Porphyry Systems", presented as part of the "Game Changers - The First 100 Years" theme.

LODE PhD student Chetan Nathwani gave an invited presentation on his work on the use of machine learning methods for mineral exploration in a talk entitled "Machine Learning for Geochemical Exploration: Classifying Magma Fertility in Arcs and Insights into Porphyry Copper Deposit Formation" and former LODE PhD student and postdoc Lisa Hart-Madigan also gave an invited presentation from her PhD research on "Unravelling Complex Alteration by Dating Hydrothermal Titanite: Implications for the Use of Geochemical Vectoring Tools in the Propylitic halos of Porphyry-Type Ore Systems".

Dick Selley gave a lecture and practical workshop on 'The impact of geology and climate change on UK viticulture' to the Geologists' Association at Denbies vineyard. He gave a talk on 'Charles Darwin and the Russel Wallace mystery' to the Dorking Society.

Upcoming Talk

Prof. Christopher Pain (Imperial College London) and Prof. Paul Smith (Jacobs) will give a talk entitled ‘Could nuclear modelling techniques help the national efforts to combat Covid-19?’ to the Nuclear Institute on 28^th Sep 2021 from 17:00 to 18:00.

Abstract: “Over many decades nuclear scientists and engineers have developed advanced techniques for modelling the behaviour of nuclear reactors under normal operation and accident conditions. These techniques have also been extended to other nuclear facilities and systems such as; decommissioning, nuclear and waste processing. Much of the phenomenology is analogous to the spread of a virus during a pandemic. For instance, the neutron multiplication factor in a nuclear reactor, k-effective, is in many ways analogous to the Reproduction Number (RO) in a pandemic. The transport of fission products on aerosols resulting from a nuclear reactor severe accident has many similarities with the spread of a virus on airborne aerosols. The presenters will explore such similarities and how the advanced modelling techniques developed in the nuclear industry can contribute to the simulation of the spread of a virus during a pandemic.”

If interested, please register to attend!

Research Grants

Rebekah Moore was awarded a Research Enablement Grant from the Royal Society of Chemistry to continue the research she and other members of the MAGIC research group conduct into trace metals in breast cancer, in collaboration with clinicians and oncology researchers based at Hammersmith and Charing Cross campuses and the London Metallomics Facility. 

Gloria Young (Materials) and Rebekah Moore (ESE) were awarded a Dame Julia Higgins Engineering Postdoc Collaborative Research Fund grant to research pollution filtration properties of leaves using contrasting imaging and element mapping techniques.

Awards

Dr Deborah Pelacani Cruz wins Overall GTA of the year 2021

Deborah Pelacani Cruz was nominated for being an integral member of the “Applied Computational Science & Engineering MSc” teaching team, assisting with four modules and contributing far beyond her expected duties to support students with practical and project work. Deborah is described as ‘a role model and inspiration for students, GTAs and staff alike. Deborah is approachable and amicable, and always offers a positive perspective to our students’.

Outstanding scientific publication

The paper “Recent advances in the application of mineral chemistry to exploration for porphyry copper–gold–molybdenum deposits:  detecting the geochemical fingerprints and footprints of hypogene mineralization and alteration” has been voted the most outstanding scientific publication in Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis (GEEA) in 2020 and the lead author (and team) have been awarded the Cameron-Hall copper medal of the Association of Applied Geochemists.

ESEA and BHM Events

September 2021 marked the first East and South East Asian (ESEA) Heritage month at Imperial. Imperial As One (IAO) have started a Padlet where staff and students from ESEA backgrounds can share a bit about themselves. Have a scroll or feel free to post something if you choose so!

October marks Black History Month (BHM) in the UK. The theme this year is ‘Proud to Be’. The Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Culture team (EDIC) will be putting together a full programme for Black History Month at Imperial. In the meantime, Black Maps Matter Online Webinar is taking place on 27 September,  6.00 - 8.00 pm. The webinar will explore the history of the decolonisation of cartography, the role of BAME communities in this process, and the work of contemporary artists who are re-imagining colonial maps from a black perspective.

New Staff

We are delighted to welcome Sophia Quazi to the department, in the new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator role. Sophia will be working across ESE and Mechanical Engineering, promoting EDI within the two departments.

PhD Vivas

Erhamah Alsuwaidi passed his PhD viva on 30 August, with no required corrections. His thesis, entitled Wellbore Stability Analysis in the Anisotropic Laffan and Nahr Umr Formations of Offshore Abu Dhabi, was supervised by Robert Zimmerman. The examiners were Gary Couples of Heriot-Watt University, and John Cosgrove of ESE. Congratulations to Erhamah!