Neil WILLIAMS PSM FTSE

Honorary Professorial Fellow Room:   41.G03C Phone No:   +61 2 4221 3714 Email:   neilw@uow.edu.au

Research Interests

Neil Williams holds the record for being the longest-serving CEO of Australia’s national geological survey and topographic mapping agency, Geoscience Australia.  He led the agency for 15 years (1995-2010) and was the chief geoscience advisor to the Federal Government on a range of geoscience issues including geohazards (earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis), environmental and land management (dry-land salinity, groundwater resources and CO2 geosequestration) and earth-resource availability and prospectivity (fossil and nuclear fuels and metalliferous resources).  Since becoming a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong he is maintaining his interest in the application of geoscience to the economic, environmental and social challenges facing modern society, but is also refocussing on his early research interests in:

• Mineral exploration – particularly the search for concealed ore deposits
• Elucidation of bedrock geology in covered areas using remote sensing and geophysical techniques
• The sustainability of mineral resources
• Mineral deposit source rocks and Australia’s prospectivity for new metalliferous mineralization

Representative publications

Williams, N., 1997, Mother Earth:  A Source of Sustainable Energy in the Proceedings of the 1997 Invitation Symposium of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Sydney, 25-26 November 1997, entitled: “Energy for Ever:  Technological Challenges of Sustainable Growth”, p.247-253.

Williams, N., McKay, W.J., and Miezitis, Y., 1994, Geoscientific issues in the assessment of undiscovered mineral resources - Shoalwater and beyond: Outlook 94, v. 4 Minerals and Energy, Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), Canberra, p.35-42.

Eldridge, C.S., Williams, N., and Walshe, J.L., 1993, Sulfur isotopic variability in sediment-hosted massive sulfide deposits as determined using the ion microprobe SHRIMP: II. A study of the H.Y.C. deposit at McArthur River, Northern Territory, Australia: ECON.GEOL., v.88, p.1-26.

Williams, N., 1992, The mineral prospectiveness of Australia: National Overview: Outlook, 92, Mineral exploration symposium volume, Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE), Canberra, p.1-6.

Williams, N., Cohen, Y., Haack, U., Hallber, R.O., Kaplan, I.R., Nielsen, H., Sangster, D.F., Trudinger, PP.A., Truper, H.G., and von Gehlen, K., 1982, Stratified sulfide deposits state of the art report in Holland, H.D., and Schidlowski, M., eds., Mineral deposits and the evolution of the biosphere.  Dahlem Konferenzen, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, p.275-286.

Trudinger, P.A., and Williams, N., 1982, Modern and ancient environments of stratified sulfide deposition, in Holland, H.D., and Schidlowski, M., eds., Mineral deposits and the evolution of the biosphere.  Dahlem Konferenzen, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, p.177-198.

Gustafson, L.B., and Williams, N., 1981, Sediment-hosted stratiform deposits of copper, lead and zinc: ECON-GEOL., 75th Anniv. Vol., p.139-178.

Williams, N., 1978a, Studies of the base metal sulfide deposits at McArthur River, Northern Territory, Australia: I. The Cooley and Ridge deposits: ECON.GEOL., v.73, p.1005-1035.

Williams, N., 1978b, Studies of the base metal sulfide deposits at McArthur River, Northern Territory, Australia: II. The sulfide-S and organic-C relationships of the concordant deposits and their significance: ECON.GEOL., v.73, p.1036-1056.

Williams, N., and Rye, D.M., 1974, Alternative interpretation of sulphur isotope ratios in the McArthur lead-zinc-silver deposit: Nature, v.274, p.535-537.

RECENT INVITED INTERNATIONAL LECTURES

Are we about to run out of minerals – not we are not!  Eduard Suess Lecture, Austrian Academy of Science.  A public lecture presented in Vienna, Austria, on 28 April, 2010. (www.oeaw.ac.at/multimedia/electure/2010/williams/index.html)

The exhaustion of mineral resources – a truism or a state of mind?  Plenary keynote Statoil-Hydro address, 33rd International Geological Congress, Oslo, Norway, 12 August 2008

Suggested Topics for Future Students

(1) Factors controlling the location of Australian mineral deposits in time and space

(2) Assessment of Australia’s remaining mineral-resource endowment

Abbreviated CV

1976 PhD Yale University, USA "The formation of sedimentary-type stratiform sulfide deposits"

1969 BSc(Hons) Australian National University "Palaeozoic geology of the Bethanga Goldfield, North East Victoria"

Positions

2010 – present Honorary Professorial Fellow, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong

1995 – 2010 CEO Geoscience Australia

1992 – 1995 Executive Director, Bureau of Resource Sciences

1991 – 1992 Associate Director, Bureau of Mineral Resources

1981 – 1991 MIM Holdings Ltd – various positions including, from 1988-1991, that of  Chief Geologist, with responsibility for the global exploration activities of the Mount Isa Mines group of companies

1976 – 1981 Research Fellow, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University.

Neil Williams is presently the President of the 34th International Geological Congress to be held in Brisbane, Qld, August 2010, and President of the Australian Geoscience Council. He is also a member of the Queensland Exploration Council and of the National Committee for Earth Sciences, Australian Academy of Science.

He was President of the Society of Economic Geologists in 2008 and served on the Faculty of Science Visiting Committee of the University of Wollongong from 1996 to 2010.

In the 2006 Australian Day Honours he received the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service in the provision of geoscientific advice to government, geoscience services, industry and the public, and was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1996.