GEMOC ARC National Key Centre
Director's preface
This report summarises gemoc’s 2008 activities including research, technology development, strategic applications, industry interaction, international links and teaching (at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels). The report is required as part of GEMOC’s formal annual accounting to the Australian Research Council (ARC). The ARC acknowledges GEMOC as a continuing ARC National Key Centre while GEMOC attracts sufficient income to fund its activities and achieve its yearly goals, and submits an Annual Report fulfilling ARC reporting requirements.
GEMOC’s strategic vision of integrating geophysical, geochemical, petrologic, tectonic and geodynamic modelling to gain a better knowledge of our Earth system is being fulfilled; one example is our strong presence at the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo in 2008. Two major sessions (with GEMOC convenors) focussed on different aspects of geophysical and geochemical synergies and one on deep Earth geochemistry (also with a GEMOC convenor) attracted stellar contributions and large audiences; participants included many of GEMOC’s international collaborators (see “GEMOC communications” section). A Lithos volume on the “Nature of the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary through time” is being prepared as a result, and this Annual Report highlights a milestone achievement - the first major integrated paper from the GLAM (Global Lithospheric Architecture Mapping) program funded by WMC Exploration and then
BHP-Billiton with ARC Linkage support (see cover and Research Highlight). GEMOC’s success in linking interdisciplinary knowledge and data is also evident in many of the 54 articles published in
high-impact journals including Nature, Geology, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Journal of Petrology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, G-cubed, Chemical Geology and Geophysical Research Letters. GEMOC also had prominent representation at all peak relevant conferences with keynote, invited and presented lectures.
The continuing support of GEMOC through the Earth and Planetary Evolution CoRE (Concentration of Research Excellence), as part of the initiative by Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen Schwartz to expand Macquarie’s research activity and profile has resulted in six new academic positions in place (Professor Bill Griffin, Dr Tracy Rushmer and Dr Craig O’Neill from 2007, Professor Simon Turner, Dr Bruce Schaefer, Dr Juan Carlos Afonso) and one under recruitment (a geophysics position). This Earth and Planetary Evolution CoRE is extending and enhancing our research profile in: isotope and trace element geochemistry; lithosphere and Earth dynamics; geophysical imaging of Earth’s interior; dynamic modelling of Earth’s mantle; rheology of rocks and minerals; and cosmochemistry and meteoritics.
In 2008, GEMOC was again successful with ARC Discovery Projects (a 50% success rate) and Linkage Projects (reported in Appendix 5 and in the section on Industry Interaction). All of these projects involve international Partner Investigators, collaborators who extend our breadth and depth of expertise. We are maintaining our diversified portfolio of robust funding and resource bases ranging across direct funding from government sources and industry partners, collaborative projects and alliances with international researchers, institutions and industry, and strategic alliances with technology and instrument manufacturers.
GEMOC’s high visibility internationally is attracting a growing postgraduate group, strongly supported by Macquarie’s generous PhD scholarship schemes. Our postgraduate students had a high participation rate at national and international conferences, and gained three awards for outstanding student talks (see “GEMOC communications” on page 23 and Appendix 4). They also had a high rate of publication in high-impact journals in 2008 (9 papers). There is a continuing contingent of postdoctoral researchers with independent funding. In 2008 these included international Postdoctoral Fellowships funded from Germany, Spain and Taiwan supplementing national and Macquarie sources.
GEMOC’s world-class geochemical and high-pressure experimental infrastructure (see Technology development) is the critical core of most of our research and allows us to maintain a leading profile in geochemical analysis developments, especially in in situ trace element and isotopic analysis.
The teamwork and dedication of all GEMOC participants is the key to our ongoing productivity and creativity, and I would like to acknowledge all of the efforts of those involved.
Suzanne Y. O'Reilly