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 1998.  It also serves many other purposes as it is the general source, through 1999, 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.

1998 was GEMOC's third year and perhaps most satisfying year with all of our programs flourishing and many coming to fruition in the first stages. GEMOC has been very visible nationally and internationally through 1998 with over 100 presentations at 18 conferences, 55 peer-reviewed publications, and many  international visitors and postgraduate exchange programs.  It is difficult to choose highlights from the many achievements, but these include the following (as well as the Research highlights in this Report):

• exciting progress in applying novel geophysical techniques to recognise lithosphere-scale structures in a collaborative research project with industry. This is reflected in the front cover, and the results represent major progress towards realising our Mission Statement.
• commissioning of the Nu Plasma Multi-Collector ICPMS within a week of its delivery and installation and attachment of a Merchantek laser ablation microprobe. This has allowed us to extend our in situ microanalytical work to the isotopic scale.
• enhanced student participation in undergraduate programs with 30% and 40% increase in enrolments in the mainstream geoscience unit at 100-level at Macquarie, increased retention rates to 2nd and 3rd years, attraction of new students from other programs outside geosciences to 3rd year geophysics, and vigorous honours and postgraduate (including international exchange) programs.

The funding climate continues to be difficult in both the university and mineral exploration sectors but there is well-placed fundamental optimism in GEMOC.  Our University support through the Vice-Chancellor and all the Executive remains extremely strong.  There was a renewed agreement by Macquarie to honour GEMOC's strategic plan for staff maintenance and for continuation of GEMOC after the six years of DETYA funding, as well as continuing resources for infrastructure, laboratory refurbishment, and funding for research and equipment. Support and interaction from industry is increasing, especially through leveraged collaborative schemes (eg Macquarie University and SPIRT).

The first two years of GEMOC were foundation years, building infrastructure, new contacts and conceptual strategies, and ensuring the optimum personnel mix within the resource constraints.  The Geology and Geophysics Disciplines were amalgamated in 1998 and under Macquarie University's major restructuring for 1999, Geology and Geophysics now form the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.  We have now reached a strong platform from which to implement and extend our programs.

We anticipate an exciting and challenging year in 1999.
 
 
 

Suzanne Y. O'Reilly