NEW GRANTS for 2002

Drs A.J. Berry and J. Hermann received an ARC Discovery Project grant for 2003–2004; "Water storage in the earth's mantle — understanding the process of OH incorporation in olivine."

Dr A.J. Berry in collaboration with Dr H.StC. O'Neill received a grant from the Australian Synchrotron Research Program to continue their work on oxidation states in silicate glasses and melts at the Australian National Beamline Facility, Tsukuba, Japan.

Dr A.J. Berry was an investigator in a successful ARC LIEF bid; “Fluorescence detector for the Australian National Beamline Facility”.

Drs A.J. Berry, J. Mavrogenes and Mr A. Hack received a grant from the Access to Major Research Facilities Fund to study synthetic fluid inclusions at GSECARS, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, USA.

Dr J. Braun was awarded a Discovery grant ($385 000) for 2003-2005 on "Constraining landform response to tectonic and climate changes in an active orogen: a multi-disciplinary approach". He and Dr Malcolm Sambridge were awarded a LIEF grant (See Malcolm Sambridge's annual report contribution for more details). Dr Jean Braun is Partner Investigator on a large AIF/ACOA research grant funding the development of a large-scale three-dimensional numerical model of the Earth's mantle and crust. The purpose of the model is to understand the complex interactions between the Earth's crust, the underlying mantle and the hydrosphere. The Chief Investigator is Prof. Beaumont of Dalhousie University. Funding is $3,767,690 over 5 years.

Drs. Braun and Sambridge were awarded a grant from the ARC Discovery Linkage Infrastructure Equipment fund for construction of a Beowulf cluster of 130 PCs (Total value \$372,000). The computational facility is designed for solving nonlinear inverse problems using parallel computation. Partner institutions in the project entitled `Geowulf: An inference engine for complex Earth systems' were; Univ. of Melbourne, Univ. of Macquarie, Univ. of Western Australia, Univ. of Dalhousie, Geoscience Australia and Cougar Computers Pty.

Professor J. Chappell was awarded a three year ARC Discovery grant DP0342689 “Production and transport of soil and sediments, determined by cosmogenic radionuclides and noble gases” with co-investigators Dr M Honda, Dr D Fabel, Dr LK Fifield. He was also awarded ARC Discovery grant DP0343908 “Millenial-scale instability of sea level and the climate system: new analyses of coral terraces in Papua New Guinea” with co-investigator Dr T Esat. The grant will enable drilling on 30,000 year to 60,000 year old terraces for U-series and accelerator based radiocarbon dating to investigate ice age climate and sea-levels.

Professor S.F. Cox was successful in gaining an ARC Linkage grant of $270,000 to support research on the development of lode gold systems in the Eastern Goldfields of WA for two years.

Dr. W.J. Dunlap and Dr. S. McLaren were named investigators on an ARC Discovery Grant (2003-2005) with Dr. P. Rey, University of Sydney, and others entitled “From synchrotron characterization of single fluid inclusions to Archaean geodynamics: An integrated study of fluid-rock interactions in the primitive crust”

Dr D. Fabel was awarded two ARC Discovery Grants: DP0342704 “Looking back to see the future: Change in the Lambert Glacier and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet” with K. Lambeck, P. Tregoning, R. Coleman and D. Fink.

Dr M. Gagan was awarded the ARC Discovery Grant “Quantifying the El Niño-Indian Ocean Dipole system using high-resolution coral palaeoclimate archives” with W. Hantoro, J. Lough and G. Meyers. Dr M. Gagan was also awarded an Alan Cox Visiting Fellowship to Stanford University, USA.

Professor R. W. Griffiths and Dr R. C. Kerr were awarded a new Discovery Grant (ARC) for 2003-2005 for work on “The fluid dynamics of lava flows: Silicic domes and basaltic channels”.

Professor R. Grun was awarded the ARC Discovery Grant “Stable isotopes in marsupials: reconstruction of environmental change in Australia” with M. Gagan, D. Bowman and R. Wells.

Professor T.M. Harrison, Dr T.R. Ireland and Dr V.C. Bennett were awarded a grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the project titled “A Mission to Very Early Earth: When Did Conditions Suitable for Life to Emerge on Earth?”

Professor Harrison also received an ARC grant for the project titled “Tectonic Reconstruction of the Evolution of the Alpine-Himalayan Orogenic Chain.”

Dr T.R. Ireland was awarded an ARC grant to support research on Lithic Astronomy: The age and origin of the elements and their incorporation in the solar nebula.

Dr I. Jackson was awarded an ARC discovery grant of $184,000 for studies of the influence of partial melting on seismic wave attenuation.

Professor Kurt Lambeck and Drs Derek Fabel, Paul Tregoning, Richard Coleman (University of Tasmania) and D Finko (ANSTO) were awarded an ARC Discovery Grant ($530 000) for 2003-2006 for the study of the glacial history of the Lambert Glacier in Antarctica. …

Professor M.T. McCulloch was awarded two new ARC Discovery Project Grants in 2002. They were:"Sea Levels, Sea Surface Temperatures and El Nino Variability During Warm Interglaciations" with Dr Paul Hearty of James Cook University in Queensland and Professor Alexander Halliday of ETH Zürich and "The Coral Record of Environmental Impacts in the Great Barrier Reef: Quantification of Anthropogenic Fluxes" with Dr Janice Lough of the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Professor I. McDougall was awarded a grant from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering to facilitate fast neutron irradiations of geological samples in the HIFAR nuclear reactor, operated by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization, in relation to the isotopic dating of rocks by the 40Ar/39Ar method.

Ms H. McGregor was given a Goldschmidt 2002 Organising Committee Grant to attend the Goldschmidt 2002 Geochemical Conference, Davos, Switzerland, August 2002.

Dr. S. McLaren was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant, including Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship, (2002-2004) entitled “Argon thermochronometers and the effects of recrystallization” 

Ms A. Müller won travel support from the Australian Coral Reef Society to attend their annual conference.

Drs H.StC. O’Neill, J. Hermann, J. Mavrogenes and Professor R. Arculus received an ARC-discovery grant for 2003–2005; “Properties of hydrous fluids and silicate melts at very high temperatures and pressures”.

Drs H.StC. O’Neill, S. Kesson and M. Gagan were successful with a major equipment proposal to purchase a new powder X-ray diffractometer

Dr C. Pelejero was awarded the grant “Uptake of atmospheric CO₂ in the oceans and implications for global change: New proxy developments” (DP0342702).

Dr P. Tregoning was awarded an ARC Linkage-Infrastructure grant ($353K)- in collaboration with Dr Coleman (University of Tasmania), Prof. Lambeck and Dr McQueen (RSES) – to purchase 6 new GPS receivers and to build 4 new electronics systems for deployment in Antarctica. The equipment was deployed in December 2002 to measure long-term glacial isostatic adjustment of the crust as well as to monitor the tidal movement of the Amery Ice Shelf. Dr Tregoning was also awarded an ARC Discovery grant ($380K over 5 years) for a project titled “Caught in a vice: Modelling crustal deformation in Papua New Guinea.

Dr J.G. Wynn was awarded the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting “Program B2(c) Continuation of Soil Organic Carbon Inventory Techniques” with $7800 funding for 2002. He was also awarded the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Accounting “Program B2(c) Soil Organic Carbon Inventory Techniques, Applied to Soil Texture” with $60,000 in funding for 2002-2003.