Kath successfully applied for a bursary from the Mineralogical Society. She will receive £500 to cover travel expenses for conducting a part of her PhD research in the lab of Prof Joseph Stucki at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As the award letter points out, ‘very few applicants are awarded the full amount requested’ – but Kath was one of these very few!
Well done Kath and congratulations!
Dong gave his final presentation in group meeting, before heading back to Wuhan for the remainder of his PhD. We will miss his inputs and creative thinking and wish Dong all the best for his research ahead!
The Neumann group has funding available for one EPSRC PhD studentship in Environmental Engineering, with the topic of Assessing the sustainability of iron clay mineral redox reactions for application in engineered systems.
Application deadline: 27 April
Selection interviews: 17-19 May
Start of studentship: September 2017
The project aims to provide fundamental understanding to aid in designing effective (natural) remediation strategies as well as engineered water systems such as aquifer storage and recovery. In the project, we will test the validity of the paradigm that iron-bearing clay minerals are a renewable source of reduction equivalents in the environment and expand current knowledge from closed systems to more realistic, flow-through conditions. To this end, we will investigate aspects of reversibility of clay mineral redox reactions; the effect of redox cycling on clay mineral stability and reactivity; and differences between chemical, microbial, and biologically mediated clay mineral iron reduction. We will complement our experimental work with quantitative modeling of the processes involved.
For this project, I am looking for a highly motivated candidate with a strong background in environmental chemistry, geochemistry, soil science or a related discipline and with experience in the laboratory. The candidate should be motivated to conduct extensive laboratory work, including aqueous and solid phase analyses (HPLC, ICP-MS, XRD, Mössbauer spectroscopy). Experience in any of these techniques would be advantageous.
The award is available to UK/EU applicants only. Depending on how the EPSRC’s eligibility criteria are met, the applicant may be entitled to a full or a partial award. For required English language skills (international students only), please see here.
For more information, please contact me.
Kath has won a travel grant from the Clay Mineral Society to attend the Society’s Annual Meeting in June this year. The meeting will be held in Edmonton, ON, Canada, and Kath will present the results of her work on ‘Assessing the combined redox reactivity of iron-bearing clay minerals and organic ligands’.
In addition, Kath was also awarded the Blair Jones/Jane Flynn award for the highest rated Travel Grant Application.
Congratulations Kath!
Kath was featured in the December edition of the magazine Elements. Her research was highlighted as Kath is the recipient of one of four CMS Student Research Grants. For more information, read here.
Kath was invited to attend the Michaelmas Court Lunch of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators in London on 19 September. The Company is a Livery Company of the City of London who seek to advance practices concerning water and environmental management.
Kath was invited to promote their universities programme (of which Kath is an alumnus) which provides funding to MSc students in the broad field of environmental engineering.
– by Kath Rothwell –
The group attended the Clay Minerals Group, Research in Progress Meeting 2016 at the University of Manchester on 13 September. Khalid and Kath gave oral presentations and Jim presented a poster on their work on clay minerals and organic contaminant transformation.
The day was varied and interesting with presentations on topics ranging from clay minerals in sediment flows to clay minerals for predicting the quality of oil and gas reservoirs and good discussion was had by all.
– by Kath Rothwell –
Kath and Jim presented their work on reactive clay minerals and contaminant transformation at the University of Birmingham as part of the Groundwater: Our Hidden Asset conference (13-14 September 2016). The conference was a two-day meeting of consultants, regulators, and academics from various fields of hydrogeology including water resources and management, groundwater ecology, and novel remediation technologies. The event also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the International Association of Hydrogeologists and the Geological Society Year of Water. Both Kath and Jim’s work was well-received, and opened up a dialogue with consultants and regulators about how we can improve our understanding of natural attenuation.
– by Jim Entwistle –
While traveling to Colorado, Anke seized the opportunity to visit the Colorado School of Mines, with which Newcastle University is connected via the STREAM-ReNUWIt Network. During the day, Anke met several faculty members and gave a seminar that raised exciting discussions.
Many thanks to Chris Higgins, who kindly hosted Anke and organized this fantastic and interesting day!