Geophysics for Environmental Scientists
The “Geophysical Skills Development for Environmental Scientists” course is aimed at postgraduate research students and early career researchers who wish to learn about the theory, practice and real-world application of environmental geophysics for research and career development. On these pages you will find information about the course, who should attend and how to apply for a place.
Course dates
TBC
Content
Participants will gain experience of geophysical data collection, processing and interpretation under commercial conditions - a key skill for future research and/or commercial sector employment.
There are five inter-linked, components:
- short lectures giving key background theoretical information
- short commercial section detailing tendering, contracts and reporting
- specialist software training sessions (some by external software companies)
- virtual equipment familiarisation/configuration(s), recorded or 'live'
- geophysical/survey data processing/interpretation/numerical modelling
Who should attend
Environmental and natural scientists that have limited theoretical/practical experience of near-surface geophysics but wish (or intend) to use these techniques in their research or future career. Places will be free for NERC-funded PhD students (at all stages), Early Career Researchers and Fellowship holders (i.e., 50% or more funded by NERC). Non-NERC PhD students, ECRs and Fellows can also attend but there will be a £200 course fee. There are some limited scholarship places for those students who can evidence hardship.
This year we are also opening up the course to a limited number of graduate-entry commercial employees, keeping in mind that they are not the focus of the course. As the course is accredited by the Geological Society, Fellows will have a 10% discount of the £400 commercial course fee.
The “Geophysical Skills Development for Environmental Scientists” course is aimed at Postgraduate Research students and Early Career Researchers who wish to learn about the theory, practice and real-world application of environmental geophysics for research and career development.
- A virtual course where attendees will learn the theory and practice of a range of near-surface geophysical instrumentation commonly used in environmental research (e.g., GPR, Electrical Resistivity Imaging, Microgravity, Electromagnetic and Magnetic techniques, etc).
The course is led by Drs Jamie Pringle & Ian Stimpson of the Applied and Environmental Geophysics Group at Keele University and Mr Tim Grossey of RSK STATS Ltd who have over fifty years experience of research and training in academic and industrial near-surface geophysics. Commercial software companies will also provide bespoke training courses.
Content
Participants will gain experience of geophysical data collection, analysis and interpretation under commercial conditions - a key skill for future research and/or commercial sector employment.
What will you learn?
The series of theory & practice workshops will include lectures, practicals, equipment demonstrations in order to train/equip participants with the necessary skills to design, plan, organise, collect, process and interpret near-surface geophysical data.
What will the programme involve?
The programme will give basic theory of the main near-surface geophysical techniques before equipment familiarisation, data collection, data processing, numerical modelling and basic data integration.
Attendees will be given individual copies of all learning materials (digital) for their own use along with Geological Society of London accredited CPD certificates.
Keele Controlled Test Site
Resistivity
GPR
Electro-Magnetics (EM)
Magnetics
- Southport magnetic susceptibility data
- Lakes magnetic proton data and base station data
- Campus walled garden path magnetic GEM data
Seismics
Gravity
- Campus clocktower bridge CG5 data - Mar052021.xyz, Mar052021.txt and raw raw Mar052021.sgd
- Campus clocktower bridge total station survey data
Surveying
How to apply
Please download and fill in the application form and e-mail it to Clare Sillitto, at c.m.sillitto@keele.ac.uk
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Previous years' highlights
“Superb! Never experienced a course like this. I can already see where I can use these techniques in my PhD research. Perfect balance between theory and practicals”.
“Excellent course. Course presenters were fantastic; organised, helpful, informative and friendly. I have learnt a huge amount in such a short period of time and my PhD will quickly improve as a direct result of attending this course.”
“This is easily the best training course I’ve been on. Organisation is excellent with the right amount of practical and lectures. The use of teamwork and project really is clever to make optimal learning of different geophysical techniques and networking with others. Often on other courses they say they offer networking opportunities, which just turns out to be tea and biscuits, but this course delivers properly. The materials supplied are excellent. Would recommend highly for researchers or professionals who want to understand and apply geophysics in their work.”
“Thank you! I will use these techniques in my future research, it has been empowering to learn some basic skills and become aware of what is possible and what the techniques entail.”
