GEMOC ARC National Key Centre

Director's Preface

This Report is the official account to the government funding body, the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs of GEMOC's achievements and activities for 1997. It is also the general source, through 1998, of information on GEMOC for a wide range of our end-users; undergraduate and postgraduate students, the mineral exploration industry, the technology manufacturing sector, the scientific community and the general public.

1997 was GEMOC's second year and it was an exciting year with increasing visibility for our activities in many areas. The funding of a Multi-Collector ICPMS follows our strategy of letting scientific objectives drive technology advances and applications in GEMOC. An instrument of radical new design, the Nu Plasma, will be installed early in 1998 and allow us to extend our microanalytical work to the isotopic scale. This development inspired the cover design, with the image on the back cover emphasising our philosophy of creating productive, user-friendly environments, in this case, a powerful new software to deliver rapid on-line data reduction for laser-ablation ICPMS analysis.

GEMOC has been well-represented internationally in many arenas through 1997. International visitors, postgraduate exchange programs, representation at international conferences and GEMOC publications in international journals have increased. A three-year collaborative project with Nanjing University was funded by AusAID's Australia China International Links Program and has reciprocal funding from the Chinese side. Workshops, Symposia and Short Courses attracted a wide cross-section of clientele from industry and other institutions from Australia and overseas.

The funding climate in Australian Universities did not improve throughout 1997, but there is a fundamental optimism in GEMOC. This stems from the very strong University support that has been evident in so many ways, from refurbishment of GEMOC space, to infrastructure and equipment funding and to honouring GEMOC's strategic plan for staff renewal and for continuation after the six years of DEETYA funding.

Synergy between teaching and research was a highlight in 1997 and significant course restructuring, shaped with industry advice, reflected GEMOC's global approach to understanding the way the Earth works and showing why this is important to the exploration industry.

We look forward to another dynamic year in 1998.

Suzanne Y. O'Reilly