Day 1: Talks and workshops
11.00 – 11.30: Arrival and registration
11.30 – 11.45: Welcome and introduction
11.15 – 12.30: Where can a career in geoscience take you?
Alexandra Kilcoyne (Natural England): ‘Advanced colouring in’ and other antics
This is my standard response when people ask about my job. It’s the classic geography joke. The difference is that rather than reach for the colouring pencils, I use satellite imagery and machine learning to teach a computer what to colour where. In this talk I will take you from where it started, here at Aberystwyth University, through to walking the England coasts and designating new national trails, counting gulls with drones, working with satellite data from the European Space Agency and finally developing an idea that has now become a multi-million-pound programme on national scale – all in the name of helping to protect and restore our natural world.
Marissa Lo (Geological Society of London): Planetary science to publishing
Pretty much everyone I know has asked themselves the same questions when finishing university: what job do I want to do? How do I know what career is right for me? I was asking myself those questions in spring 2022, while finishing my PhD thesis on lunar volcanology. Since June 2022, I’ve been working as the Assistant Editor of Geoscientist magazine. In this talk, I’ll share my tips for choosing a job after university as someone who has very recently gone through that process, along with insights into doing a PhD and working as an editor.
Kate Lambert-Smith (Dŵr Cymru): Geology to water resources - follow your interests and see where they take you
With a love for all the sciences, I wanted to study something applied that brought them all together. For me, that subject was geology. From that starting point, my career has wound through hydrogeology, contaminated land and water resources. I started out studying the Earth’s deep past, but now I look to the future to manage our water resources in a changing climate.
12.30 – 13.45: Lunch and Careers in Geoscience Q&A
14.00 – 15.00: Workshop A
15.00 – 15.15: Break
15.15 – 16.15: Workshop B
Choose 2 from 3 of the following workshops:
Trashcano! with Annie Winson and Rhian Meara
How do volcanoes erupt? In this workshop we will make our own model ‘trashcano’ to witness the power of an explosive volcanic eruption for yourselves and learn more about the volcanic hazards which impact people living near volcanoes today.
Virtual Geosciences: exploring our planet and beyond! with Helen Miles and Andra Jones
There are so many new technologies being developed to allow us to mix the real world with virtual environments, in this workshop we will look at some technologies like virtual and augmented reality, 3D printing and scanning, and see how and why they might form part of the geoscientist’s toolkit in the future.
Super Sediments! with Hollie Wynne and Hywel Griffiths
Environmental processes have shaped the world around us, but how do we know what those processes were like in the past? Examining the sediment left behind can give us the answers. This practical session will look at what clues we can find in sediment that can be used to reconstruct how a landscape was formed.
16.30 – 17.15: Refreshments and University Life Q&A
17.15 – 17.30: Thanks and close
Day 2: Field trip, Aberystwyth area
We will visit classic geological and geomorphological sites in Ceredigion, providing you with an opportunity to learn about the geology and landscape shaping processes - past, present and future. This will be a bilingual (Welsh and English) guided excursion with staff from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University.
Meet at 9.30 am by the entrance to the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, Llandinam Building, Aberystwyth University and return by 3 pm.
