Geography, Geology and the Environment
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MSc Geoscience with Scientific Training Placements
UK MSc students undertake an international placement at a institute/industry in which an extensive 8 months research project is undertaken. Details are given in the tab below.
International MSc students undertake their research project at Keele University. Potential research areas are given in the tab below.
For further course information or to apply on-line please follow this link.
Placement details
UK Students
Applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss international placement options with the Keele staff member listed below prior to submitting an application. In the application documents (personal statement), students should clearly indicate their international placement choice as well as their background and motivation for applying for a particular Geoscience placement.
Canada
Earth & Planetary Sciences, Department of Physical Sciences, Grant McEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
No longer available for 2013/14 academic year
Geoscience placements are offered in collaboration with Dr Mark Furze (and the Geological Survey of Canada) and are hosted by the Department of Physical Sciences at Grant MacEwan University (Canada).
Projects aim to better understand the evolution of the Canadian Arctic marine and terrestrial environments during the Quaternary period, particularly the oceanography, ice-ocean-atmosphere dynamics, and Arctic climate of the past 20,000 years.
Students will apply techniques in marine micropalaeontology, stratigraphy, sedimentology, geochemistry, and geochronology on marine sediment cores from the sea floor of the Beaufort Sea and Northwest Passage in order to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental records of, for example, Laurentide Ice-sheet dynamics, Neoglacial sea-ice and tidewater glacier behaviour, and Holocene climate.
Opportunities may also be available participate in fieldwork and gain valuable paid university teaching experience in the fields of geomorphology, sedimentology, and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
Contact: Dr Alix Cage
Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Geoscience placements are offered in the Department of Geography, University of Calgary (Canada) in collaboration with Professor Brian Moorman in the area of Permafrost and Glacial Hydrology.
The main thrust of the projects would be in furthering understanding of the hydrological and thermodynamics of permafrost and glaciers in the Canadian Arctic. Students can apply geophysical, remote sensing and numerical modelling techniques to study modern geocryology and the interface between glaciers, water bodies and permafrost.
There are a variety of potential projects available that involve computer or lab work and there may be the possibility to participate in field studies. Field-based studies involve utilizing a range of different techniques from standard surveying and hydrological monitoring methods to the use of ground-penetrating radar to image the inside of glaciers and the use of unmanned aerial helicopters for extremely high-resolution remote sensing and monitoring.
Contact: Dr Richard Waller
Hungary
Department of Physical Geography, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary
No longer available for 2013/14 academic year
Geoscience placements are offered at the Department of Physical Geography, Eötvös University (Hungary), in collaboration with Dr Dávid Karátson, in the areas of volcano geomorphology and physical volcanology, using field-based, photo-statistical and GIS-based techniques.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Ralf Gertisser
Iceland
Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland.
Geoscience placements are offered at the University of Iceland in collaboration with Dr Jón Eiríksson and Dr Esther Ruth Guðmundsdóttir, in the areas of marine geology, palaeoceanography, tephrochronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. The overarching theme would be to reconstruct past ocean conditions and investigate climate change over the North Atlantic region during the Quaternary period.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Alix Cage
Ireland
UCD School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
No longer available for 2013/14 academic year
Geoscience placements will be hosted by the Geochronology, Petrology and Isotope Geochemistry Research Group, in collaboration with Professor Stephen Daly, at the School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland.
The Geochronology, Petrology and Isotope Geochemistry Group carries out research across a broad range of geodynamic, petrological and geochronological problems in the geosciences and are supported at UCD by the facilities of the National Centre for Isotope Geochemistry.
Applications are invited for International Geoscience Projects in the broad fields of igneous and metamorphic petrology. Specific (but not exclusive) areas of study include:
- Deducing magma chamber processes via the study of layered mafic and ultramafic intrusions
- Investigating petrological and isotopic variation in the oceanic mantle through the study of ophiolites
There is scope to apply fieldwork, petrographic and geochemical techniques to addressing these problems.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Brian O’Driscoll
Ireland
Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences, National University Of Ireland, Galway
Geoscience placements are offered here, in collaboration with Dr Rachel Cave, in the School of Natural Sciences. Research areas include seabed surveys (side-scan sonar), marine geology, sedimentary basins, geochemistry, hydrogeology and coastal sediments.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month(see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Jamie Pringle
Italy
Department of Structural Engineering, Polytechnic of Milan, Italy
Applied geoscience placements are offered at the Polytechnic of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) in Northern Italy, a world-class research institute in the field of earthquake engineering. Research topics are available in a variety of areas, geophysical monitoring and networks, and the development of software and equipment to locate earthquake survivors in urban landscapes, including seismic, wall and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and ultrasonic methods. Collapsed building test sites exist on campus.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Jamie Pringle
Italy
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Rome, Italy
Research projects in geoscience are available at the High Pressure High Temperature Lab of Experimental Volcanology and Geophysics at the INGV in Rome, Italy in collaboration with Dr. Lilli Freda. The High Pressure High Temperature lab has a very broad research scope from experimental petrology and geochemistry to the analysis of explosive volcanic processes by high-speed camera and the geophysics of volcanic degassing.
Research opportunities mainly encompass, but are not limited to, the textural and geochemical investigation of experimentally simulated magma-crust interaction, with a focus on volatile species.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details)
Contact: Dr Lara Blythe
Spain
School of Mines and Engineering, University of Ovideo, Spain
No longer available for 2013/14 academic year
An applied geoscience placement is offered in the University of Oviedo in Asturias, N Spain. They are very active in both applied research and with mining and extractive industries.
They research a variety of local mining exploitation, prospection and modelling. Particularly strong in signal processing, numerical/inverse modelling, geophysical monitoring and new field configurations.
Available equipment include GPR for NDT and fieldwork, TDEM equipment adapted for both near-surface and deep targets; microgravimetry, magnetics, surveying and geodesy instrumentation.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Jamie Pringle
Sweden
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
Geoscience placements are offered at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Uppsala (Sweden), in collaboration with the research group of Prof. Valentin Troll. The main fields of research of Prof. Troll’s group are igneous petrology, volcanology and geochemistry, with a major focus on shallow-level magma chamber processes and associated volcanic eruptions.
Projects available aim to better understand the dynamic interplay of magma chamber processes, magma transport and eruptive behaviour through a number of different approaches to investigate the various aspects that influence magmas from their source to the surface, including field-work (funding permitted), experimental and numerical simulations and petrological and geochemical studies.
Successful candidates will be eligible for an ERASMUS stipend of the equivalent of 370 EUR per month (see course website for details).
Contact: Dr Ralf Gertisser
International Students
International MSc students undertake their research project at Keele University. Potential research areas are given below.
Students are encouraged contact the academic member of staff listed before making an official application.
Applied Geology and Renewable Energy
The student can investigate a range of renewable energy issues, including the effects of wind turbines, geothermal energy and shale gas fracking.
Contact : Dr Ian Stimpson
Applied, Environmental and Forensic Geology
The student can participate in ongoing long-term geophysical monitoring projects, including monitoring of collapsing salt mines in Cheshire as well as environmental forensics topics, including geophysical monitoring of simulated clandestine graves, detection of near-surface buried objects and detection and characterisation of illegally buried waste.
Contact : Dr Jamie Pringle
Coastal Environments and Sea Level Change
The student can research sea-level change and coastal environmental change via a range of sedimentological and micropalaeontological techniques.
Contact : Dr Katie Szkornik
Environmental Science and Ecology
The student can carry out projects in experimental biogeochemistry with a focus on soil greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, CNP cycling and water quality at catchment scale as well as restoration ecology of wetland and floodplain ecosystems.
Contact : Dr Sami Ullah
Environmental Studies and Palaeoceanography
The student can study modern marine environments and marine environmental change (palaeoceanography) using a range of micropalaeontological, sedimentological and geochemical techniques.
Contact : Dr Alix Cage
Environmental Studies and Palaeolimnology
The student can research lake (and catchment) processes and environmental change (palaeolimnology) via a range of sedimentological, geochemical and micropalaeontological techniques.
Contact : Dr Antonia Law
Glacial and Periglacial Environments
The student can study both modern and ancient glacial and peri-glacial environments, including glacier-permafrost interactions and glacial processes.
Contact : Dr Richard Waller
Igneous Petrology and Volcanology
The student can study a range of topics in igneous petrology and volcanology.
Contact : Dr Ralf Gertisser and Dr Brian O'Driscoll
Palaeontology
The student can study a range of topics in micropalaentology, palaeoecology and biogeography.
Contact : Dr Michael Montenari
Sedimentology and Basin Dynamics
The student can study sedimentary basins, their controls, fill and subsequent deformation and inversion using sedimentological techniques, numerical analysis, seismic reflection interpretation and structural geological modelling.
Contact : Dr Stuart Clarke and Dr Stuart Egan
