Previous Seminars 2019
28 March: Australia and New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC) Road Show [PDF]
As/Prof Leanne Armand, ANZIC Program Scientist, ANU Researcher
22 February: Molasse deposition and batholith exhumation in NW Himalaya [PDF]
Dr Renjie Zhou, The University of Queensland
Previous Seminars 2018
19 December: Botswana and Namibia: a travelogue from a geologist’s perspective [PDF]
A/Prof. Paul Carr, University of Wollongong
9 December: Initial findings from a two-month expedition collecting deep-sea cores in the Southern Ocean (International Ocean Discovery Program, Expedition 369) [PDF]
Dr Lloyd White, University of Wollongong
30 November: The record of collision along the northern margin of the Australian Plate – insights from the Bird’s Head Peninsula, NW New Guinea [PDF]
Max Webb, University of Wollongong
22 November: IODP Exp. 389 (Hawaiian Drowned Reefs): unlocking the history of sea-level, climate change and reef responses over the last 500,000 years [PDF]
A/Prof Jody Webster, University of Sydney
2 November: Understanding Earth System Evolution - connecting Deep to Surface Processes [PDF]
Prof. Dietmar Müller, University of Sydney
25 October: The Metal Age of medicine: Tracking homeostatic metal distribution from pigs - people
Dr Brandon Mahan, Macquarie University
21 September: Landscape evolution and the critical zone in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico [PDF]
Emma Harrison, University of California
14 September: Re-thinking an arid Last Glacial Maximum: new evidence from Australia’s arid interior [PDF]
A/Prof. Tim Cohen, University of Wollongong
10 August: Unlocking the biostratigraphical potential of radiolarians in eastern Australia [PDF]
Sarah Kachovich, University of Queensland
3 August: Crustal Structure of the North Anatolian Fault from Seismic and Geodetic Observations [PDF]
Prof. Gregory Houseman, University of Sydney
8 June: Life, the Universe and Everything (and ripping off Douglas Adams) [PDF]
Watch the seminar on YouTube
A/Prof Anthony Dosseto, University of Wollongong
25 May: Hot rocks in the Jungle: High-temperature metamorphism and melting in eastern Indonesia [PDF]
Dr Jonathon Pownall, Australian National University
10 May: Calibration of lithium isotopes as a silicate weathering proxy: New developments [PDF]
Dr Mathieu Dellinger, Durham University, UK
27 April: Oroclines in the Tasmanides (eastern Australia): the twisted nature of orogenic belts [PDF]
Associate Professor Chris Fergusson, University of Wollongong (Seminar Presentation)
9 March: Why do rivers evolve like organisms to maximise their efficiency and minimise the work they must do? [PDF]
Professor Gerald Nanson, University of Wollongong
23 February: Large-scale landscape responses to Pliocene-Pleistocene climate changes and lithospheric flexure: Arctic Canada [PDF]
Dr John Gosse, Killam Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Previous Seminars 2017
17 November: Joint Seminar
Part 1- Professor Peter Bridgewater, University of Canberra
Title: IPBES, Ramsar, CBD, CMS - the international alphabet soup of saltmarsh and mangrove conservation and management
Part 2 - Professor Allen Nutman, University of Wollongong
Title: A window onto Earth’s surface at 3800 million years ago
20 October: Exploring above and underwater in the Five Islands Nature Reserve, Wollongong
Dr Sarah Hamylton, University of Wollongong
13 October: ‘Testing’ the fossil record: historical inference in the early evolution of Dinosauria
Blair McPhee, Universidade de São Paulo
6 October: Underwater 3D mapping: What makes a good fish habitat, and how do we measure it?
Augustine Porter, University of Sydney
4 October: Using cosmogenic nuclides to understand the infall rates and terrestrial ages of meteorites
Professor Timothy Jull, University of Arizona
15 September: Discoveries are what you come across when you are looking for something else..
Gabriel Enge, University of Wollongong
1 September: Mantle dynamics from the bottom up: reconstructing mantle flow and continental-scale landscape evolution since the Age of the Reptiles
Dr Nicolas Flament, University of Wollongong
4 August: Hidden Histories in Quartz and Feldspar: What I have learnt stuydying the most abundant minerals on Earth
Dr Dominique Tanner, University of Wollongong
1 June: Reconstructing Late Pleistocene coastal environmental conditions and human settlement – a case study from Israel, east
Dr Dorit Sivan, University of Haifa, Israel
25 May: Evidences for paleoenvironmental and climatic variability in the Mediterranean region inferred from lake sediments
Dr Alexander Francke, University of Wollongong
4 May: Rapid pulses of magmatism, metamorphism and deformation in South East Asia and Western Pacific
Dr Lloyd White, University of Wollongong
6 April: Perturbation of Earth surface processes by earthquakes and catastrophic floods, examples from Nepal
Dr Christoff Andermann, German Centre for Geosciences
22 March: Deriving long-term rates of sea cliff retreat using cosmogenic isotopes
Dr Martin Hurst, University of Edinburgh
Previous Seminars 2016
9 December: Would you like to express complex research ideas clearly and succinctly across a variety of media?
Erin O’Dwyer (Journalist, feature writer, editor) and Paul Jones (Photojournalist)
2 November: The Oklo (West Africa) Palaeoproterozoic Nuclear Reactor: A Natural Wonder
Hiroshi Hidaka, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan
14 October: Hot, hot, hot: Australia’s future extreme temperatures
Dr Sophie Lewis (ANU and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Systems Science)
16 September: Mercury Studies in Archaeology and Environmental Sciences: a new facility at ANU
Dr Larissa Schneider (ANU)
4 August: Pages 2K - Overview of recent products and progress
Mike Evans, Vice Chancellor's International Scholar UOW and University of Maryland USA
29 July: Messy Rivers are Healthy Rivers: The Role of Physical Complexity in Sustaining Ecosystem Processes
Ellen Wohl, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University
28 June:Randolph McBride
12 May: Towards an Archaeological Science Framework for the Study of Palaeolithic Flaked Stone Artefacts
Dr Sam Lin
17 May: Pattern in the sand
Giovanni Coco
10 Feb: Dr Anthony Dosseto
18 Feb: Volcanic activity, vegetation and climate change during the last 60 000 years in central Europe: evidence from annual laminated maar sediment from the Eifel (Germany)
Prof. Frank Sirocko
20 Jan: From plateaus and paleoclimate to fluids on faults: Carbonate clumped isotope thermometry in continental tectonics
A/Prof. Kate Huntington
University of Washington
Abstract:
Clumped isotope geochemistry constrains the temperature and isotopic composition of carbonates and the fluids from which they grew in both surface and subsurface environments. This talk will examine how this new tool with a funny name can shed light on problems in continental tectonics, focusing on paleoaltimetry, geothermal and structural geology applications.
September
The Role of Water Reclamation and Reuse for Integrated Water Resource Planning in the 21st Century
Prof Jörg Drewes
Abstract:
During the last decade, in many regions worldwide water reclamation and reuse has evolved into a cornerstone of integrated water resource planning in particular for urban areas. What began as an alternative to traditional wastewater disposal strategies, evolved today into a practice that covers a broad range of water reuse applications including landscape and agricultural irrigation, industrial reuse, multiple urban uses as well as drinking water augmentation. However, significant barriers still exist that hamper a wider adaptation of reuse practices including the lack of consistent guidance to manage public health and environmental risks, the need for a dedicated infrastructure and conveyance system, inconsistent performance and reliability of treatment processes, energy requirements and public perception. This presentation will highlight recent developments and illustrate how barriers to water reuse could be overcome. It will also feature new design approaches and technologies in water reclamation that integrate water reuse with energy and nutrient recovery
Biography:
Proffessor Jörg Drewes is Chair Professor of Urban Water Systems Engineering at the Technische Universität München (TUM), Germany. From 2001-2013, he was Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, USA.
Professor Drewes’ research and scholarly activities have been in four areas for which he is internationally and nationally recognized: (1) energy efficient hybrid systems for water reclamation and reuse; (2) design and operation of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) systems, (3) fate and transport of emerging trace organic chemicals and bulk organic carbon in natural and engineered systems, and (4) beneficial use of co-produced water from natural gas explorations. Dr. Drewes has published more than 300 journal papers, book contributions, and conference proceedings. He served on multiple science advisory panels and chaired blue ribbon panels on topics related to public health, engineering, and reliability of water reuse projects. He currently serves as the chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Water Reuse Specialist Group, with 2700 members the largest specialist group with IWA.
July
Application of optical spectroscopy in water quality assessment
Dr. Rupak Aryal
Senior Research Fellow
Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
University of South Australia
Abstract:
The environmental water flow is dynamic. The physicochemical properties of water/wastewater changes temporally. Knowing only the bulk parameters such as total organic carbon is not sufficient in its overall understanding. ‘Visualisation’ of the dissolved organic matter and its associated fractions can reveal important information related to water quality. The use of optical spectroscopy such as UV and fluorescence is considered an important tool for water treatment operators to envisage raw and treated water dissolved organic carbon of various sizes (molecular weight) and groups (humic, fulvic etc.) instantly. Incorporation of optical spectroscopy in-situ and exploitation of the obtained spectrum (using chemometric techniques) can provide a number of information on organic constituents in water and help to formulate adequate treatment requirements. This speaker would talk on his journey of application of optical spectroscopy in environmental water research.
Biography:
A Chemist turned Environmental Engineer, Dr. Aryal completed his PhD and a postdoc tenure from University of Tokyo, Japan, and has worked in different research and teaching positions at Universities in Nepal and Australia. He is an expert of monitoring of emerging pollutants in storm water in urban and ultra-urban environment.
June
Application of Novel Draw Solutions on Osmotic Membrane Bioreactor for wastewater treatment
Prof Simon Chen
Distinguished Professor
Institute of Environ. Eng. & Management
Dean, Office of International Affair
National Taipei University of Technology
Abstract:
A novel osmotic membrane bioreactor (OsMBR) was proposed for municipal wastewater treatment to simultaneously achieve high water quality, low membrane fouling, and less energy consumption. The experimental results showed that the using EDTA sodium coupled with Triton X100 as the draw solution in MBBR(moving bed bioreactor)-OsMBR system could achieve lowest salt accumulation in bioreactor due to hydrophobic interaction between the tails of Triton X100 and the membrane constricted FO membrane pores, appreciably reducing the reverse salt diffusion of Na+, H[EDTA]3-, and Na[EDTA]3-. That was a good exploration for OsMBR operation to minimize the effect of reverse salt flux and maintain a healthy environment for the microorganism community.
The proposed OsMBR systems was able to obtain high nutrient removal. In MBBR-OsMBR system with the proposed draw solution, at a filling rate of 40% (by volume of the bioreactor) of the polyethylene balls used as carriers, NH4+-N and PO43--P were removed corresponding to 99.70% and 99.02% while producing relatively low NO3--N and NO2--N in the effluent (e.g. < 0.56 and 0.96 mg/L, respectively). Moreover, a nanofiltration (NF) membrane was employed to recover the draw solute, achieving a high rejection of 95% due to the high charge and large size of the draw solute. An explanation for this phenomenon would be that the gel layer formation from micelle of Triton X100 on NF membrane blocked/constricted membrane pore leading to increasing removal.
Innovation in Membrane Separation for Resource Recovery and Water Treatment
Professor Jega Jegatheesan Deputy Head
Civil, Environ. & Chemical Eng
RMIT
Dr Ming Xie
VC Research Fellow
Institute for Sustainability & Innovation, Victoria University
Dr Kha L. Tu
Research Fellow
Chemical Engineering, Monash University
Abstract:
The speakers will reveal their recent discoveries in the development of membrane separation technology (with a specific focus on forward osmosis) for water treatment and resource recovery. Key topics to be discussed in this seminar include zero liquid discharge, energy and phosphorus recovery from wastewater, fouling control, and the development of thermo-responsive hydrogels as draw agent for forward osmosis membrane processes.
March
Interfacial hydrodynamics and fouling: Towards a unified colloidal theory of the “critical flux”
Dr Guy Ramon
Environmental, Water & Agricultural Eng.
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Eng.
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Haifa 32000, Israel
http://wetlab.net.technion.ac.il/
Abstract:
Separation membranes are generally more prone to deposition and fouling than chemically identical, impermeable surfaces, primarily due to the existence of an additional velocity component. At close proximity to the membrane surface various forces arise, resulting from electrostatic, van der Waals, hydration and hydrodynamic interactions, which may be either attractive or repulsive. In particular, the attractive hydrodynamic force due to permeation has been linked to a ‘critical’ flux, at which deposition occurs, and has been experimentally observed for many systems. It is hypothesized to occur at a point where the balance between all forces becomes dominated by permeation drag. Hence, knowledge of the way these forces depend upon various characteristic process parameters provides useful tools for predicting conditions leading to deposition and fouling.
In this talk, I will present a theoretical treatment of the coupled hydrodynamic-colloidal interactions between a particle and a membrane surface, with the goal of deriving rational criteria for deposition. The role of various surface and hydrodynamic forces and their incorporation into a unified framework is discussed. In particular, the hydrodynamic contribution is highlighted, as is its dependence upon particle shape and deformation.
February
A membrane based platform for the future (Prof Fane)
Development of the novel membrane distillation membrane bioreactor technology for water reuse (Dr Goh)
Professor Tony Fane & Dr Shuwen Goh
Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute
Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC)
Nanyang Technological University
Abstract:
Tony is a chemical engineer with a PhD from Imperial College in London. He has developed membrane theory and application since 1973. Tony is a former Director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology at UNSW, a Founding Director of the Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC) at Nanyang Technological University (http://newri.ntu.edu.sg/). Since 2013, he continues to serve as a Distinguished Professor and Director-Mentor at SMTC. SMTC has a group of over 80 researchers, dedicated to applied research into membranes for the water cycle. SMTC researchers collaborate with multidisciplinary talents across NTU, with other universities and industry partners, including global companies such as Siemens and Toray, to develop new, low-cost, and improved membranes and membrane-based systems. SMTC has generated numerous IPs, licensing and commercialisation arrangements. Tony is one of 25 World Leaders in the Water Industry (Water & Wastewater International). He has published over 380 peer review journal papers and has an h-index of 64. In the year of 2014 alone, he has secured S$6.4 million in research funding. Tony is a patron of the Membrane Society of Australasia, an Australian icon in membrane research, and an untiring advocate of early career researchers.
Dr Shuwen Goh is a Research Fellow at SMTC. She is well known for her work in developing the novel membrane distillation – membrane bioreactor technology for water reuse. To date, she has published 5 peer review journal papers on this topic.