4 June ACTER science planning meeting

The first ACTER science planning meeting was successfully held at Curtin University’s Council Chamber on 4 June, 2015. It was attended by 17 ACTER representatives from 10 ACTER partner institutions. Curtin University’s Acting Vice Chancellor Professor David Wood, and Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Prof Brett Kirk, welcomed the delegates and attended part of the meeting.

The morning session of the meeting was mainly devoted to presentations by representatives of partner institutions/research groups on each institution/group’s research strengths, expertise, facilities, and potential research directions for collaboration through ACTER. Curtin University was represented by Professors Zheng-Xiang Li (ACTER Co-Director, Australia), Simon Wilde (TIGeR – The Institute for Geoscience Research’s founding Director, also representing Prof. Kliti Grice and her WA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre), Andrew Putnis (TIGeR’s current Director), Brent McInnes (Director, John de Laeter Centre for Isotope Research), Dr Jane Cunneen (representing Professor Chris Elders’ petroleum geoscience group), and Dr Weihua Yao who kindly helped to organise the event. Non-Curtin attendants include Professors Jinhui Yang (Assistant Director, Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geology and Geophysics – CAS-IGG, representing Professor Rixiang Zhu, ACTER Co-Director, China, and Director of IGG), Xianhua Li (Director of IGG’s SIMS Centre), Yigang Xu (Director of CAS’ Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry), Lifei Zhang (Dean, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University), Hanlin Chen (Dean, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University), Dongsheng Sun (Director, Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, SINOPEC), Jonathan Aitchison (Head, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland), Dr Simon Williams (representing Professor Dietmar Müller of University of Sydney’s EarthByte group), A/Professor Marco Fiorentini and Dr Yongjun Lu (representing Professor Campbell McCuaig, CET Director, The University of Western Australia), and Dr Mathew Greentree (Principal Consultant – Project Evaluations, SRK Consulting Australasia Pty Ltd).

The afternoon session focused on discussing scopes and major research directions for ACTER, forms of collaboration, locations and themes of annual ACTER field symposia, matters related to regular staff/student exchange and joint training of young researchers (including research students), and funding opportunities.

Majority of the overseas delegates stayed on for short local field excursions to the edge of the Yilgarn craton, the Albany-Fraser and Pinjarra orogens, the Perth Basin, and for visits to other geoscience institutions in the Perth region.

Meeting and field trip images