May news items

9th May - Southern Cross GeoScience Directors, jointly take out SCU VC Award

Centre Directors, Prof Leigh Sullivan and Prof Richard Bush, took out the inaugural Southern Cross University Vice Chancellor's Awards for Excellence on Friday night. Together with Prof Brad Eyre, Leigh and Richard were jointly recognised for Excellence in Research. The award, presented by Thomas George MP, Member for Lismore, was awarded for high quality publications and national competitive grants which led to Southern Cross University achieving an Excellence in Research for Australia ranking of five – well above the best in the world for geochemistry.

The gala black tie event, held in Lismore, was attended by more than 140 staff from the Lismore, Gold Coast and Tweeds Heads and Coffs Harbour campuses, and community members. Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Lee said the night was very much a celebration of the achievements of the staff of Southern Cross University. "We strive for a high performance culture and an important factor in achieving this goal is recognition - paying credit where credit is due. Tonight we showcase excellence and celebrate the achievements of our staff. We pay tribute to our academic and professional staff who have achieved the highest standards across teaching and learning, research, professional staff performance, and community engagement," Professor Lee said.

16th May - Southern Cross GeoScience featured in back-to-back issues of leading Geochemistry journal

Research conducted by Southern Cross GeoScience has been featured in back-to-back issues of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, which is regarded as the lead journal in geochemistry.
The journal articles appear in the two June issues and are the result of collaborative research undertaken by a number of GeoScience researchers. The first paper, published in issue 11 and authored by Assoc. Prof. Ed Burton, Dr Scott Johnston and Prof. Richard Bush, deals with arsenic, iron and sulfur geochemistry following the onset of microbial sulfate-reduction. The second paper, published in the current issue and authored by Assoc. Prof. Ed Burton, Prof. Richard Bush, Dr Scott Johnston, Dr Annabelle Keene and Prof. Leigh Sullivan, describes sulfur biogeochemical cyling as a result of tidal ASS re-flooding at the East Trinity site.

Burton E. D., Johnston S. G., Bush R. T. (2011) Microbial sulfidogenesis in ferrihydrite-rich environments: Effects on iron mineralogy and arsenic mobility. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75 (11): 3072–3087

Burton E. D., Bush R. T., Johnston S. G., Sullivan L. A., Keene A. F. (2011) Sulfur biogeochemical cycling and novel Fe-S mineralization pathways in a tidally re-flooded wetland. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 75 (12): 3434–3451

For further information contact the corresponding author, Assoc. Prof. Ed Burton on ed.burton@scu.edu.au

19th May - East Trinity Research Project featured on ABC Catalyst program

On the 19th of May, Prof Richard Bush and Dr Annabelle Keene were featured on the ABC's Catalyst program. The piece highlighted the successful remediation of the East Trinity wetlands, and how the areas acid sulfate soils are now being managed. East Trinity has become one of Southern Cross GeoScience's major projects, and the research being conducted at the site has resulted in many high-ranking journal articles. View the Catalyst program here

20th May - Threatened species crash lands in GeoScience

Prof Richard Bush made an interesting discovery when he arrived at his office this morning. Earlier that morning, a Wompoo Fruit-Dove had crashed into his office window, breaking the glass and landing in his office. Thankfully Laboratory Manager, Mark Rosicky, had already noticed the broken glass under Richard's door and gone to investigate.
The large, rainforest bird was amazingly, still alive. Once the bird was carefully captured and in the safe hands of the Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers, work went ahead to replace the window and clean up shards of glass which had been thrown into every corner of the room.

It is thought that the bird was probably being chased by a predatory bird, such as an eagle or hawk, and that is why it ended up flying into Richard's window at great speed. To everyone's surprise the bird survived with only minor injuries and was release back into the wild. Wompoo Fruit-Doves are a threatened species in NSW, and the bird's presence on campus a great indication of the quality of habitat that has been restored at Southern Cross University.

Thanks to the Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers for their assistance www.wildlifecarers.com

25th May - Southern Cross GeoScience PhD candidate published in high ranking journal

Salirian Claff, a current Southern Cross GeoScience PhD student, has had her latest paper published in the high ranking journal, Chemical Geology.
Her paper "Metal partitioning dynamics during oxidation and acidification of sulfidic soil" will appear in the June issue, and is currently available on-line.

Claff S.R., Burton E.D., Sullivan L.A., Bush R.T. (In press) Metal partitioning dynamics during the oxidation and acidification of sulfidic soil. Chemical Geology. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2011.04.020

For further information contact the corresponding author, Salirian Claff on salirian.claff@scu.edu.au

Updated: 13 December 2011