The School of Geosciences
Annual Newsletter 2023
|
|
|
|
Acknowledgment of Country
The University of Sydney’s Camperdown Campus sits on the lands of the Gadigal people with campuses, teaching and research facilities on the lands of the Gamaraygal, Dharug, Wangal, Darkinyung, Burramadagal, Dharawal, Gandangara, Gamilaraay, Barkindji, Bundjalung, Wiradjuri, Ngunawal, Gureng Gureng, and Gagadju peoples. We recognise and pay respect to the Elders and communities of these lands, past, present and emerging, who for thousands of years have shared and exchanged knowledges across innumerable generations, for the benefit of all. We respect and value the knowledges, cultures and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
| |
In this newsletter
Visit our website below to read more about our school, our research, our education, connect with us on social media, contact us and /or provide feedback.
| |
Head of School welcome
Welcome to the latest School of Geosciences Annual Newsletter, which reflects on our activities in 2023. It was another action-packed year, with many highlights along the way, and I hope that what follows gives you a sense of the exciting breadth and depth of our teaching and research activities, as well as the collegiality and sense of community that typifies the school.
You are receiving this email as you have been nominated by an academic member of staff in Geosciences as a friend of the school. Thank you for your interest in our school and the academic disciplines within it. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others who you think might be interested, and do not hesitate to reach out if you would like to engage with us in any way.
Professor Neil M. Coe, Head, School of Geosciences
| |
Appointments and promotions in 2023
| |
 | Dr Tristan Salles
Promoted to Level D Associate Professor
| |  | Dr Rebecca Cross
Promoted to Level C Senior Lecturer
| |  | Dr Sara Moron Polanco
Promoted to Level C Senior Lecturer
| |
| | |
 | Dr Rebecca Hamilton
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Lecturer in Geography
| |  | Dr Jianping Zhou
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow
| |  | Dr Lian Sinclair
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Associate
| |
| | |
 | Dr Ana Paula Da Silva
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow
| |  | Dr Sinan Özaydin
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow
| |  | Dr Justin See
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow
| |
| | |
 | Dr Andres Rodriguez
Commenced at the School of Geosciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
| |
| | |
In May 2023, Dr Sabin Zahirovic organised a special community outreach event in Auburn, ‘Geographical Society of Australia (NSW Division) Turkiye-Syria Earthquake Scientific Information Session,’ focusing on the science of the recent earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. Co-organised by the Geological Society of Australia (NSW Division) and the School of Geosciences with funding support from Cumberland City Council, the free event hosted six speakers, three of whom were from our chool including Dr Zahirovic, Dr Sinan Özaydin and Dr Vasileios Chatzaras. These talks were followed by a Q&A discussing science, education, media and politics. The event was well attended, with both ABC and SBS journalists providing coverage.
| |
Following Dr Sophie Webber's receipt of the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research in 2022, she delivered the Paul Bourke Lecture in September 2023. As part of Social Sciences Week, Sophie’s lecture, entitled ‘Climate Finance: Taking a Position on Climate Futures’, discussed an alternate geographical perspective on the relationship between our economy and climate change.
| |
 | Danielle Santos (UNSW) and Sam Randle receiving their awards
|
| The Annual Geographical Society of NSW Honours/Masters Conference was hosted by the School of Geosciences on 28 November. The Madsen Building was home to the one-day conference, which brought together Honours and Masters students from universities around NSW to discuss and present their geographical research. Three of our students presented, with Sam Randle and Mik Barrow both receiving awards for their presentations. The conference included two panel Q&A sessions and a keynote lecture by Dr Rae Dufty-Jones (Western Sydney University) on the potentials of management consulting and community engagement for geographers, beyond the classroom.
| |
The Geographical GSA 2023 Earth Sciences Student Symposium Earth Science Conference, a two-day, student-led and industry-sponsored event hosted by the School of Geosciences, took place on 29 and 30 November. This marked the first return to an in-person format since 2019 for the annual conference. The organising committee comprised Dr Sabin Zahirovic, Jonathon Leonard, Emma Hill, Satyam Singh, Caleb Bishop (Geoscience Australia/ACT), and Stephanie Richter Stretton (University of New England). The program featured 35 talks, three keynotes and a workshop with Dr Jess Stromberg from the CSIRO, and welcomed 75 students and academics from universities across NSW and the ACT.
| |
ENVI/GEOG/GEOL/3888 Interdisciplinary Project on Critical Minerals
In Semester 2 of 2023 the school launched an important new teaching initiative – the combined GEOL3888, ENVI3888 and GEOG3888 unit, centred on the themes of critical mineral exploration and extraction. This collaborative unit saw approximately 100 enrolments across Geography, Environmental Studies and Geology and Geophysics students, offering them the opportunity to integrate concepts, skills and practical tools to address contemporary, real-world challenges.
| |
MARS5007Coral Reefs and Climate Change
In March (for the first time since 2019 due to pandemic restrictions), MARS5007 was able to run the One Tree Island field trip. Led by Professor Jody Webster, Dr Tommy Fellowes, Lachlan Perris and Ratneel Deo, the students conducted independent research necessary for the unit, which explores key geological, oceanographic, biological and economic factors affecting global climate change and coral reef response, with specific reference to the future and fate of the Great Barrier Reef.
| |
ENVI5903 Sustainable Development Field School
In June 2023, Professor Jeff Neilson led the two-week intensive session for the ENVI5903 Indonesia Field School in Central Java. Through a partnership with Satya Wacana Christian University (UKSW) and the University of Sydney, this program exposes students to real-world development dilemmas experienced by governments, communities, and individuals in the global south. Students not only develop critical fieldwork skills, they also gain experience of living and travelling in a lower middle-income environment and develop greater empathy with policy-makers and local communities.
| |
GEOS3008 Field Geology in the Digital Age
In July 2023, our GEOS3008 students embarked on a two-week field trip to Broken Hill, led by Dr Vasileios Chatzaras, Dr Sara Moron Polanco, Professor Patrice Rey, Dr Tiago Passos, and Jonathon Leonard. This year they welcomed two third-year students from the Australian National University and a PhD candidate from the University of Technology Sydney. The field school is designed to enable students to become competent in using observations as a foundation for interpretations; identifying common crystalline rocks in the field; interpreting petrological relationships; collecting and interpreting structural data in the field; interpreting geological maps and constructing cross-sections.
| |
GEOS3055 / AGEN3008Field Studies in Geography /Indigenous Land and Food Knowledge
In July 2023, our Geosciences students and students across Science, Business, Arts and Social Sciences explored Wiradjuri Country, Gamilaraay Country, Anaiwan Country and Worimi Country. They engaged with Indigenous enterprises, Elders, communities, and various experts supporting the development of community enterprises utilising land and food knowledge. In collaboration with the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, the unit aims to promote understanding of Indigenous knowledge of land and food, both past and present, and develop skills in identifying and developing opportunities for Indigenous engagement in land management and food production.
| |
Graduate student completions
| |
Doctor of Philosophy:
Elizabeth Duncan
Thesis: Making sense of waste: understanding the (in)visibilities of waste in Sydney through labour and infrastructure.
Supervisors: Professor Phil McManus and Associate Professor Marilu Melo Zurita (UNSW)
Joe Ibrahim
Thesis: Investigating the dynamic drivers shaping fold and thrust belts from plate margins to intracontinental settings’
Supervisors: Professor Patrice Rey and Dr Vasileios Chatzaras
Alexandra Jones
Thesis: The importance of a coastal embayment for migrating humpback whale mother-calf groups: characterising movement patterns using geospatial methods
Supervisors: Associate Professor Eleanor Bruce and Professor Doug Cato
Tiago Passos
Thesis: Constraining historical accumulation of carbon, nutrients and trace metals in tropical mangrove forests
Supervisors: Professor Dan Penny and Dr Roberto Barcellos (Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil)
Master of Philosophy:
Stephen Lound
Thesis: Holocene precipitation and sedimentation in southeastern Australia: two examples from the Sydney region
Supervisors: Associate Professor Gavin Birch and Professor Deirdre Dragovich
| |
|
Dr Rebecca Cross, along with the teaching team for AGEN3008, were awarded the Outstanding Educational Engagement and Innovation Award in the 2023 Faculty of Science Learning and Teaching Awards.
| |
Professor Dale Dominey-Howes was awarded the 2022 Scott Johnson Memorial Prize in the Late Career Category, awarded to an individual or organisation making lives better, and workplaces safer and more inclusive, for LGBTQIA+ people in STEMM.
| |
Dr Nicky Wright was awarded an ARC Early Career Industry Fellowship to work on her project, 'Hunting high and low: mapping ancient topography to find copper', with BHP Group as her key industry partner.
| |
|  | GPlates Team L to R: Michael Chin, X, Professor Dietmar Müller, Dr Sabin Zahirovic, Associate Professor Maria Seton
| |
| | |
Dr Mitch Gibbs was awarded a 2023 Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship in the field of ecology, partnering with Western Washington University on a collaborative project between Australian First Nations and Coast Salish people to share their respective knowledge of shellfish.
| |
Publication highlightsGeology and Geophysics
| |
Dr Tristan Salles, Beatriz Hadler Boggiani, Dr Claire Mallard, Professor Patrice Rey and Dr Sabin Zahirovic, in collaboration with researchers in France, published a study entitled ‘Hundred million years of landscape dynamics from catchment to global scale’ in the journal Science. The paper presents results from a high-resolution model of surface physiography, validated by independent observations from the geological record, which simulates landscape evolution over the past 100 million years. The model allows for a re-evaluation of the role of surface processes and identifies inconsistencies in previous geological interpretations and reconstructions of past climates and elevations. Released by the University of Sydney, the study was also covered in the following media outlets: New Scientist, Inverse, Daily Mail, El Independiente (Spain) and COSMOS magazine. An accompanying piece penned by Dr Salles is also available in The Conversation.
| |
EarthByte’s software developer Michael Chin and Professor Dietmar Müller co-authored the study ‘A geospatial platform for the tectonic interpretation of low-temperature thermochronology’ in Nature Scientific Reports, presenting a new geospatial platform. Based on the GPlates Web Service, this platform interprets thermochronology 'Big Data' in their 4D (space and time) geological, topographic and paleo-tectonic contexts, which is particularly useful for understanding the uplift history and paleo-environments of continents.
| |
Dr Ben Mather, Professor Dietmar Müller, Chris Alfonso, Associate Professor Maria Seton and Dr Nicky Wright published ‘Kimberlite eruptions driven by slab flux and subduction angle’ in Nature Scientific Reports. The paper explores how subduction processes are linked to the timing and distribution of kimberlite eruptions, which is important for understanding the geodynamic processes involved in diamond formation.
| |
Publication highlights
Marine and Coastal Geosciences
| |
Professor Ana Vila Concejo co-authored a piece in Nature Communications entitled, ‘Reef islands have continually adjusted to environmental change over the past two millennia’. This paper investigates the effects of reef change on island nations in the past half-century, and into the next 100 years. It explores whether recent changes are unusual compared to changes in the pre-industrial era, utilising radiometric dating, geological analysis and remote sensing on a remote Maldives island.
| |
Professor Ana Vila-Concejo and Dr Tommy Fellowes published ‘Components and tidal modulation of the wave field in a semi enclosed shallow bay’ in Estuaries and Coasts. The paper observes the composition of waves in bays with tidal shoals, focusing on Tomales Bay in Northern California, where the authors deployed pressure sensors to study the waves. The paper found that low-frequency waves do not go far into the bay, whereas high-pressure waves are generated inside the bay.
| |
Professor Jody Webster, alongside colleagues including a former PhD student Dr Gustavo Hinestrosa, published ‘Relative sea level response to mixed carbonate-siliciclastic sediment loading along the Great Barrier Reef margin’ in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. This paper discusses how sediment deposited along the GBR during the last deglaciation has affected sea levels over time. This impact is known as ‘sediment isostatic adjustment’, with the researchers using a glacial isostatic adjustment model to develop a history of the sediment. The findings suggest that differences in sediment deposition and coastal environments may explain variations in sea-level history documented by fossil coral reef records.
| |
Tiago Passos, Professor Dan Penny and others published the article ‘Low carbon accumulation in a macro-tidal mangrove forest on the Amazon coast’ in Limnology and Oceanography. The study uses a special dating method to look at a 125-year history of carbon accumulation in sediments from a mangrove forest in the Amazon, which is important for figuring out how to address climate change and implement strategies to offset carbon emissions on a global scale.
| |
Publication highlights
Geography
| |
Dr Sophie Webber’s paper ‘For and against climate capitalism’ in Geographical Research starts from the point that our current political-economic-climate conjuncture demands new engagements at the dynamic interface of climate capitalism. Using two cases of climate capitalist responses to climate challenges, the research demonstrates the reparative potentials that emerge from the tensions and ambiguities that typify that conjuncture.
| |
Associate Professor Jo Gillespie, Dr Rebecca Hamilton and Professor Dan Penny published, ‘Letting the plants speak: law, landscape and conservation’ in the journal Ambio. The paper considers the ecological history of the wetlands, drawing from paleoecological data, within context of the complex network of governance entanglements. It argues that the system bears little resemblance to its long-term character and has been made and continually re-made by a portmanteau of inflexible regulatory structures. It also suggests that maintaining ecosystem services in such a complex, hybridised sociolegal-biophysical system requires a critical view of both the power relations and physical processes that shape it.
| |
Yunie Rahmat, PhD student at the School of Geosciences, published her first paper co-authored with Associate Professor Jeff Neilson, entitled ‘The ebb and flow of capital in Indonesian coastal production systems’ in the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. Using national datasets and fieldwork in South Sulawesi, the study explores capital intensification driving fisheries' growth, highlighting the resilience of small-scale production systems amid increasing market integration.
| |
Professor McManus wrote a commentary entitled ‘Living with anthropogenic climate change: Learning from environmental history to question narratives of doom, hope, and crisis’ in Geographical Research. The commentary offers a brief review of environmental history spanning from deep time to recent waves of environmentalism. It demonstrates that climate change has occurred before, that people have faced perceived end times, and that predictions of doom have helped us to act to avoid that potential scenario. The commentary presents a matrix of positions adopted in relation to climate change and environmentalism more generally, highlighting narratives of hope, doom and urgency.
| |
Professor Kurt Iveson and Associate Professor Amanda Tattersall published ‘Democratising cities: introduction’ as a special feature in City. The paper sees democratisation as a process of extending equality to establish legitimate authority in the face of specific problems and injustices. Through this lens, it explores various strategies for democratising cities, focusing on practical approaches such as alliances, citizen platforms, digital tools, and participatory budgeting–efforts that redefine democracy and offer fresh perspectives on how it should function.
| |
|
|
|
|
|
