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The 2006 Australian Organic Geochemistry Conference: A combined national conference of the Australian Organic Geochemists and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group
Organic Geochemistry Organic Geochemistry 38 (2007) 1011–1012 www.elsevier.com/locate/orggeochem
Preface
The 2006 Australian Organic Geochemistry Conference: A combined national conference of the Australian Organic Geochemists and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group
General The 2006 AOGC was held in February near Perth, Western Australia on the beautiful snorkeling/fishing island of Rottnest. The conference was entitled ‘‘The Origin and Fate of Naturally Occurring Organic Matter’’. The title reflects contributions from the Australian Organic Geochemistry Community and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group. It was attended by 59 enthusiastic scientists (from both academia and industry) and students from across the continent, Europe and the USA. The 40 talks and 21 posters covered the following topics: Recent Developments in Size Exclusion Chromatography, Disinfection Byproducts and Nitrogen Organics Analysis, Water Treatment, Recent Organic Matter, Palaeoclimate, Analytical Methods and Petroleum Geochemistry. A CD of the abstracts (ISBN: 1 74067 454 5) is available at a small cost from Kliti Grice ([email protected]). The conference was organised by the local committee of Kliti Grice (Convenor), Ben van Aarssen (Curtin University), Paul Greenwood (University of Western Australia), Linda Stalker (CSIRO) and Daniel Dawson (Curtin University).
The scientific programme kicked off with a keynote lecture by Professor Jean-Philippe Croue´ of the Universite´ de Poitiers, France, who presented work with colleagues from the Curtin University, Perth on ‘‘Characterisation of colloids isolated from surface waters’’ His talk introduced the session on ‘‘Recent Developments in Size Exclusion Chromatography’’. Other keynote lectures were given by Dr Lorenz Schwark (University of Cologne, Germany) on ‘‘The Lower Toarcian carbon isotope excursion – three competing models’’ and Professor Brian Horsfield (GFZ Potsdam, Germany) on ‘‘Feeding the deep biosphere’’. Conference proceedings Five papers from the AOGC-NOM 2006 are presented in this issue; Kliti Grice and Linda Stalker served as Guest Associate editors. The conference once again confirmed that Australia has a small, but thriving community of organic geochemists, joined more recently by water quality research scientists. Because of the roaring success of the combined event it was suggested we do this again and we hope that scientists from other countries will join our next combined AOGC-NOM meeting in Ade-
0146-6380/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2007.03.009
1012
Preface / Organic Geochemistry 38 (2007) 1011–1012
laide in 2008. For further details, contact David McKirdy ([email protected]). Conference support Generous financial and in-kind support for student travel, prizes, refreshments and pre-conference dinner drinks was provided by Woodside Energy Limited, Geotechnical Services Pty. Ltd., the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, the Water Corporation, CSIRO Petroleum and the Centre of Excellence for Applied Organic Geochemistry (CAOG) at Curtin University of Technology. We would also like to acknowledge Tanya Chambers for secretarial support, Gayle Newcombe for promoting the conference amongst the Natural Organic Matter community, Kathleen Grey (Geological Survey Western Australia) for her support on the field trip to Cervantes to see some living stromatolite beds and the Pinnacles and to CAOG’s students for assistance during the conference. The organising committee for the 2006 meeting would like to thank all the contributors towards a very successful meeting. Awards Selecting the best in each of the student categories was difficult because all students had done extremely well with talks and posters. However, Pia Atahan (University of Western Australia) received a prize for her oral presentation on her PhD thesis work on ‘‘Human influence on Holocene environmental change in the Yangtze River delta: a combined biomarker, d13C, 14C, pollen and charcoal approach’’. Two runners up were PhD student R. Nimmagadda (Macquarie University) who presented ‘‘Character-
isation of backbone structures of fulvic acids by selective chemical degradation’’ and Stephen Fenton (Curtin University of Technology) who presented material from his Honours thesis work entitled ‘‘Changes in abundances and stable carbon isotopes of plant and algal biomarkers across the PermianTriassic Schuchert Dal section (Eastern Greenland)’’. The best student poster was awarded to Amy Bowater (Curtin University) for her Honours thesis work jointly supported by CSIRO (Land and Water, Adelaide) on ‘‘13C/12C of plant-derived components in soil profiles to track changes in vegetation: Invasion of C3 trees into C4 grasslands’’. The runner up’s prize went to PhD candidate Justin Blythe (CWQRC, Curtin University) for ‘‘The effect of natural organic matter in water treatment processes upon bromophenol formation in distributed water’’. Best paper award went to Associate Professor Simon George (CSIRO Petroleum, now at Macquarie University) for his research ‘‘Biomarkers trapped in 2.45 Ga oil inclusions from Canada’’. The AOGC Medal for lifetime achievement was awarded to Professor Michael Wilson. Kliti Grice Department of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Kent Street, Perth WA 6163, Australia Fax: +61 8 9266 2300 E-mail address: [email protected] Linda Stalker CSIRO Petroleum, ARRC, Western Australia, Australia Available online 2 April 2007
Preface
The 2006 Australian Organic Geochemistry Conference: A combined national conference of the Australian Organic Geochemists and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group
General The 2006 AOGC was held in February near Perth, Western Australia on the beautiful snorkeling/fishing island of Rottnest. The conference was entitled ‘‘The Origin and Fate of Naturally Occurring Organic Matter’’. The title reflects contributions from the Australian Organic Geochemistry Community and the Natural Organic Matter Interest Group. It was attended by 59 enthusiastic scientists (from both academia and industry) and students from across the continent, Europe and the USA. The 40 talks and 21 posters covered the following topics: Recent Developments in Size Exclusion Chromatography, Disinfection Byproducts and Nitrogen Organics Analysis, Water Treatment, Recent Organic Matter, Palaeoclimate, Analytical Methods and Petroleum Geochemistry. A CD of the abstracts (ISBN: 1 74067 454 5) is available at a small cost from Kliti Grice ([email protected]). The conference was organised by the local committee of Kliti Grice (Convenor), Ben van Aarssen (Curtin University), Paul Greenwood (University of Western Australia), Linda Stalker (CSIRO) and Daniel Dawson (Curtin University).
The scientific programme kicked off with a keynote lecture by Professor Jean-Philippe Croue´ of the Universite´ de Poitiers, France, who presented work with colleagues from the Curtin University, Perth on ‘‘Characterisation of colloids isolated from surface waters’’ His talk introduced the session on ‘‘Recent Developments in Size Exclusion Chromatography’’. Other keynote lectures were given by Dr Lorenz Schwark (University of Cologne, Germany) on ‘‘The Lower Toarcian carbon isotope excursion – three competing models’’ and Professor Brian Horsfield (GFZ Potsdam, Germany) on ‘‘Feeding the deep biosphere’’. Conference proceedings Five papers from the AOGC-NOM 2006 are presented in this issue; Kliti Grice and Linda Stalker served as Guest Associate editors. The conference once again confirmed that Australia has a small, but thriving community of organic geochemists, joined more recently by water quality research scientists. Because of the roaring success of the combined event it was suggested we do this again and we hope that scientists from other countries will join our next combined AOGC-NOM meeting in Ade-
0146-6380/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.orggeochem.2007.03.009
1012
Preface / Organic Geochemistry 38 (2007) 1011–1012
laide in 2008. For further details, contact David McKirdy ([email protected]). Conference support Generous financial and in-kind support for student travel, prizes, refreshments and pre-conference dinner drinks was provided by Woodside Energy Limited, Geotechnical Services Pty. Ltd., the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment, the Water Corporation, CSIRO Petroleum and the Centre of Excellence for Applied Organic Geochemistry (CAOG) at Curtin University of Technology. We would also like to acknowledge Tanya Chambers for secretarial support, Gayle Newcombe for promoting the conference amongst the Natural Organic Matter community, Kathleen Grey (Geological Survey Western Australia) for her support on the field trip to Cervantes to see some living stromatolite beds and the Pinnacles and to CAOG’s students for assistance during the conference. The organising committee for the 2006 meeting would like to thank all the contributors towards a very successful meeting. Awards Selecting the best in each of the student categories was difficult because all students had done extremely well with talks and posters. However, Pia Atahan (University of Western Australia) received a prize for her oral presentation on her PhD thesis work on ‘‘Human influence on Holocene environmental change in the Yangtze River delta: a combined biomarker, d13C, 14C, pollen and charcoal approach’’. Two runners up were PhD student R. Nimmagadda (Macquarie University) who presented ‘‘Character-
isation of backbone structures of fulvic acids by selective chemical degradation’’ and Stephen Fenton (Curtin University of Technology) who presented material from his Honours thesis work entitled ‘‘Changes in abundances and stable carbon isotopes of plant and algal biomarkers across the PermianTriassic Schuchert Dal section (Eastern Greenland)’’. The best student poster was awarded to Amy Bowater (Curtin University) for her Honours thesis work jointly supported by CSIRO (Land and Water, Adelaide) on ‘‘13C/12C of plant-derived components in soil profiles to track changes in vegetation: Invasion of C3 trees into C4 grasslands’’. The runner up’s prize went to PhD candidate Justin Blythe (CWQRC, Curtin University) for ‘‘The effect of natural organic matter in water treatment processes upon bromophenol formation in distributed water’’. Best paper award went to Associate Professor Simon George (CSIRO Petroleum, now at Macquarie University) for his research ‘‘Biomarkers trapped in 2.45 Ga oil inclusions from Canada’’. The AOGC Medal for lifetime achievement was awarded to Professor Michael Wilson. Kliti Grice Department of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Kent Street, Perth WA 6163, Australia Fax: +61 8 9266 2300 E-mail address: [email protected] Linda Stalker CSIRO Petroleum, ARRC, Western Australia, Australia Available online 2 April 2007