The rest of the July-September quarter proved to progress at break-neck speed. There's so much going on I barely had time to think about my research! In particular, this quarter provided some interesting opportunities to get out there, publicise my research and interact with different academic disciplines.
Three Minute Thesis
In particular, I participated in the UWA Semi-Finals of the 3 Minute Thesis competition - attempting to explain the importance of my research to an educated but non-expert audience in just three minutes. It turned out to be an incredible challenge - and I probably could have spent more time preparing! - but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has trouble explaining their research at dinner parties and to the Graduate Research School.
Geography Society of New South Wales' Member in Profile
I
am excited to announce that I have been named GSNSW's November/December
'Member in Profile'. GSNSW is one of the two leading geography
societies in Australia (the other being the Institute of Australian
Geographers) and publisher of 'Australian Geographer', within which I
published in 2010. You can see my Member Profile page here.
Rio Tinto Masterclass
In addition to the '3MT', as it's called, I participated in the August Rio Tinto Masterclass. The Masterclass was attended by twenty UWA students - 15 undergraduates and 5 postgraduates, selected from a competitive process to reflect a diverse range of disciplines. The August Masterclass included consideration of the use of isotopes and ions to date groundwater, in order to help hydrogeologists to measure recharge and discharge rates. While not specifically related to my research, it was certainly fascinating and it was great to stretch my mind into an area I'm not familiar with. You can find out a bit more about my involvement here.
Now, I better get back to preparing for this week's tutorials, and worrying about my surveys!