About the Environmental Mineralogy GroupThe EMG is a special interest group of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Our remit is to encourage, promote and support research in the broad field of environmental mineralogy and biogeochemistry in the UK and Ireland. We achieve this by regularly sponsoring and organising research seminars, meetings and conferences, both nationally and internationally. The Chair of the EMG represents the EMG Committee on the Mineralogical Society Council, which meets twice per year. In this capacity, the EMG Committee helps steer Mineralogical Society activities and input into procedures for awarding Mineralogical Society bursaries, prizes and medals, and positions on the Society Council. Further details about the group are available from the Secretary. |
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Activities
EMG Science Outreach Video Competition 2023: We invite submissions of videos less than 3 minutes long about mineralogy in the environment for the chance to win £200. Videos should focus on one mineral that can be made in the environment, found in the environment, and/or used in the environment. We want to hear about what makes your mineral unique and how we couldn’t live without it. Click here for further details.
EMG Explorer: Newsletter on recent EMG news.
EMG Research in Progress Meeting: The EMG holds an annual Research in Progress (RiP) meeting, usually hosted by one of the committee members at their affiliated institution. This is typically a one-day meeting that aims to support early career scientists in networking within the UK environmental mineralogy community, and provide an opportunity for presentation and discussion of work in progress. We typically have 1–3 Keynote speakers. The EMG covers all meeting costs, including room hire etc, delegate registration, and tea/coffee plus lunch. We also offer travel bursaries of up to £50 for each student presenting a talk and a prize of £50 for the best student poster.
The 2023 Research in Progress meeting was hosted with the Geomicrobiology Network in September 2023 at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
The 2022 Research in Progress meeting was joint hosted with the Applied Mineralogy Group in June 2022 at The University of Bristol.
The 2021 Research in Progress meeting was joint hosted with the Clay Minerals Group on 14th June 2021 at Newcastle University.
Travel bursary for student presenters at the Research in Progress meeting: The EMG invites students who are travelling to our RiP to make a pretension to apply for £50 support with the costs of attending. Receipts should be emailed to our treasurer within one month of attending the meeting
Speakers: The EMG also supports keynote speakers and can contribute to symposia and sessions at national and international conferences.
EMG Bursary Schemes: The EMG offers an Early Career Researcher Bursary to support early career scientists (Postdoctoral Researcher, fixed-term Research Fellow or fixed-term academic appointment) to carry out seed-corn research and pump-priming ideas that are expected to input into future publication and/or research funding applications. We also invite applications for our research student development fund. Click here for more information.
EMG Committee Meetings: The EMG Committee aims to meet ~3 times per year, one meeting to include the EMG AGM. If you are interested in becoming a member of the EMG Committee please contact the Chair. The committee has an equality policy and we especially encourage applications from women and underrepresented groups.
Stay connected: if you’d like to hear more from EMG, join us on twitter @EMG_minsoc or on Instagram: emg_minsoc
Meet the Committee
| Laura Newsome, Chair | |
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I am a Senior Lecturer at Camborne School of Mines, which is part of the University of Exeter, based in Penryn, Cornwall. I am a geomicrobiologist interested in understanding the behaviour of contaminants and metals in the environment, and how we can use microbe-mineral interactions for bioremediation and bioprocessing applications. See http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/em3group/ for the latest information on what my research group is up to. |
| Thomas Neill, Treasurer | |
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Tom is a Research Fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester researching environmental radiochemistry. His research interests include the speciation and behaviour of radionuclides under conditions relevant to nuclear decommissioning and the long-term disposal of radioactive wastes, and the application of synchrotron techniques (in particular X-ray absorption spectroscopy, XAS) to studying these systems. |
| Ronan Courtney, Secretary | |
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Ronan is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Biology at the University of Limerick (Ireland). His research interests include characterization of mine tailings to inform rehabilitation strategies, and the application of passive systems for treating mine waste leachates. His research group works extensively with both bauxite residue and Pb/ Zn tailings. |
| James Byrne, Communications Officer | |
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James is an Associate Professor at the University of Bristol, working on Environmental Mineralogy and Geomicrobiology. Much of his research focuses on microbe-mineral interactions especially those involving magnetite in terms of extracellular electron exchange, metal sorption, and environmental magnetism. James also specialises in the application of Moessbauer spectroscopy for studying oxidation state and composition of iron minerals. |
| Luke Townsend, Early Career Representative |
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Luke is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Materials Chemistry at the University of Sheffield and his current work investigates how the environment alters the materials and minerals associated with the Fukushima disaster. Prior to this, Luke was part of the Manchester Geomicro Group for his PhD and first postdoc, working on systems relevant to geological disposal of radioactive waste. Here, Luke used lab and synchrotron techniques (such as X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy) to investigate how iron minerals (such as ferrihydrite, magnetite, and mackinawite) impact the environmental mobility of contaminants, like uranium and neptunium, under sulfidic conditions. |
| Ece Kirat, EDI representative |
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Ece is a economic geologist at General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration of Turkey. Her research interests include economic geology, mineralogy, geochemistry and stable isotopes. She completed her PhD at Ankara University in 2020, focusing on Pb-Zn skarn deposits and second master (Mres) at University of Exeter in 2022, studying on magnetite geochemistry related to skarns. In previous, She worked some projects about fluorite mineralisations related to alkalen magmatism and spinel composition of serpentinized peridotites. |
| Latham Haigh, Student Representative |
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Latham is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield working in the degradation and corrosion of materials and minerals which could potentially be used for radioactive material disposal in a geological disposal facility. He works specifically on how radiation can impact the aqueous durability of ceramic materials that are based on natural analogue minerals through dissolution and radiation damage experiments. |
Former Committee Members
| Position | |
| Stephen Parry | Treasurer |
| Sam King | |
| Oliver Moore | Secretary |
| Heather Buss | Chair | Treasurer |
| Caroline Peacock | Chair |
| Claire Corkhill | Chair | Treasurer |
| Vicky Coker | Ordinary member |
| Loredana Brinza | Ordinary member |
| Andrew Bray | Comms Officer | Early career rep |
| Divyesh Trivedi | Industry member |
| James Graham | Industry member |
| David Read | |
| Monica Felipe-Sotelo | |
| Jeremy C. Rushton | |
| Sam Shaw |