July news items

4th July - Assoc. Prof. Ed Burton & Dr Scott Johnston complete marathon month of synchrotron research

During the month of July, Assoc. Prof. Ed Burton and Dr Scott Johnston spent time at both the Taiwan Synchrotron facility in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan and the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne, clocking up over 190 hours of beamtime. From the 2–4 July, Ed and Scott were at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne, collecting iron x-ray absorption spectroscopy data required to determine iron mineralogy and speciation in a series of sulfidic samples.From 4–12 July, they were at the Taiwan Synchrotron facility in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan under a beamtime grant from the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre. The grant facilitated collaboration with Prof. L-Y Jang on beamline 16A for sulphur X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy and collaboration with Prof J-F Lee on beamtime 17C for iron and arsenic X-ray absorption extended fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. And from the 26-28 July, Ed and Scott returned back to the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne to collect arsenic x-ray absorption spectroscopy data required to evaluate the role of iron/sulfur biogeochemistry in shuttling electrons to/from arsenic in flooded soil.

11th July - Dr Jeff Parr invited to attend international conference in China

This week, Dr Jeff Parr is visiting Qinghai Province, China along with Southern Cross University's Dr Kevin Glencross and Assoc. Prof. Graham Jones. The trip, which was organised by Assoc. Prof. Graham Jones and the Qinghai Forestry Department, is part of a collaborative AusAID project between Australia and China.Significant land degradation in Qinghai Province coupled with climate change has led Chinese forestry organisations to look to carbon sequestration in an effort to lower their green house gas emissions. During the visit to Qinghai, Jeff will give a presentation at the International Conference on Climate Change and Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. While many international policy makers and scientists attended, Southern Cross University will provide the main university based scientists outside of China. Jeff presented a presentation on phytolith carbon entitled; "Phytolith carbon sequestration in agricultural, grassland and forestry".

22nd July - Greg Combet learns of GeoScience work on plantstones

This week Climate Change Minister Greg Combet was in Lismore at the invitation of Janelle Saffin, Federal Member for Page and University Council member. During his visit Minister Combet, spent time with Centre Director Prof Leigh Sullivan, who had the opportunity to discuss his work on 'plantstones'.

Updated: 06 October 2011