Joint RST and Beer Aquatic event featuring Professor Pete Strutton

Date: Thursday 26 August, 6:30 pm – No registrations or tickets, but arrive early to secure a seat.

Venue: Hobart Brewing Company, 16 Evans St, Hobart

We all know that two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is ocean, but did you know that land-derived particles can have a huge impact on the marine ecosystem? Marine life that lives thousands of kilometres from any land mass depends on land surface processes for key nutrients, and in the ocean-dominated Southern Hemisphere some of those processes are pretty surprising. In this special event, co-hosted with the Royal Society of Tasmania, Prof Pete Strutton will talk us through those processes, and the important business of how we can track this land-sea connection in the remote oceans of the world.

Professor Pete Strutton is a biological oceanographer at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. His field of research is the interaction between physical and biological processes in the ocean, and the consequences for ocean productivity and air-sea CO₂ exchange. He has a PhD in Marine Science from the Flinders University of South Australia and has held positions at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Stony Brook University and Oregon State University before joining UTAS as an ARC Future Fellow in 2010. He is a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites all members and supporters to a Zoom webinar on September 5, 2021 at 5 pm in which Dr Alessandro Silvano will present his RST Doctoral Award Lecture. Note the unusual time 5 pm.

This webinar will be presented from the UK so it will not be possible to attend in person.

To view the webinar on your own device, you must register in advance. Use this link to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Dr Silvano will explore the oceanic processes that drive melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Different processes lead to certain areas of the Antarctic Ice Sheet being more susceptible to rapid ocean-driven melting, while other areas are more resilient. He will describe the emergence of feedback between the ice sheet and Southern Ocean. Increased ice melting leads to warming of the oceanic waters surrounding Antarctica and has consequences for future sea level rise. Furthermore, increased melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet affects the global ocean and its ability to store anthropogenic heat and carbon.

Alessandro Silvano

Alessandro Silvano is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton (UK), investigating how currents in the Southern Ocean regulate the oceanic heat transport toward the Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing ice melting and sea level rise. Alessandro has recently completed a PhD at the University of Tasmania and CSIRO, where he worked on ice-ocean interaction in East Antarctica, with a focus on the Totten Glacier. Dr Silvano won one of the 2020 RST Doctoral Awards.

The lecture on August 1, 2021, by Dr Adam Abersteiner, is now available on the RST YouTube channel. Read more about the lecture here.

The Royal Society of Tasmania invites all members and supporters to a Zoom webinar on August 1, 2021 at 5 pm in which Dr Adam Abersteiner will present his RST Doctoral Award Lecture. Note the unusual time 5 pm.

This webinar will be presented from interstate so it will not be possible to attend in person.

To view the webinar on your own device, you must register in advance. Use this link to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Kimberlites are rare igneous rocks that originate from the deepest-derived magmas on Earth. Despite their rarity, they have attracted an almost disproportionate amount of attention in geoscience as they entrain fragments of mantle rocks (i.e. xenoliths) and are the major source of diamonds. Thus, kimberlites present unparalleled insights into the composition and nature of the Earth’s deep mantle. However, one of the greatest challenges in understanding how kimberlites form is deciphering what the original composition of magma was in the source, as by the time the magma reaches the surface and solidifies, it has undergone extensive alteration.

This presentation will highlight research advances developed during the course of Adam’s PhD. The focus will be on the systematic study of melt/fluid inclusions in kimberlite minerals and the novel insights they present, contrary to classic models, into the composition and evolution of kimberlite magmas.

Dr Adam Abersteiner is a Postdoctoral Researcher in geochemistry and melt inclusions at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He completed his PhD in 2020 from the University of Tasmania under the supervision of Professor Dima Kamenetsky. Adam received his undergraduate Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Melbourne and pursued his Honour’s Degree at the University of Tasmania.

During Adam’s time as a student, his research focused on understanding the composition of kimberlite magmas (i.e. the deepest derived magmas known) and how they evolve during their ascent through the Earth’s mantle and crust. His research focused on analysing melt and fluid inclusions entrapped in kimberlite minerals in order to reconstruct the original composition(s) of kimberlite melts prior to alteration processes. Adam’s research interests have now branched into understanding different topics in petrology, such as chromite geochemistry and various alkaline magmas.

The RST – ATSE public forum featuring Nathan Bindoff, Mary O’Kane and Andrew Catchpole, on Wednesday 23 June 2021 is now available on the RST YouTube channel. Read more about the lecture here.

The lecture on May 23, 2021, by Dr Jennifer Lavers, is now available on the RST YouTube channel. Read more about the lecture here.

Climate challenges and the path to mitigation

Public lecture at Stanley Burbury Theatre, UTAS Sandy Bay, Hobart and via Zoom webinar
Wednesday 23 June 2021, 7 pm

The Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) and the Royal Society of Tasmania (RST) are bringing together three outstanding speakers who will take the audience on the path from climate crisis to sustainable future.

This event is open to the public. People with an interest in near-future climate and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) are encouraged to attend.

To attend the lecture in person you must register in advance due to COVID rules. Use this Eventbrite link to register.

To view the event through the Zoom webinar, you must register using this link. You will be sent a confirmation email describing how to join the webinar.    

Professor Nathan Bindoff, a three-times lead author on the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report, will provide a snapshot of emerging new climate states, tipping points and extreme weather in our potential future with weather events more frequent and intense than ever before.

Learning from past events is key to mitigating the impact of climate change; ATSE Fellow Professor Mary O’Kane will examine the nature of the 2019-20 bushfires, why they raise some particular challenges for mitigation and how applied scientists can influence policy development effectively.

The energy sector plays a major part in climate change mitigation. Andrew Catchpole has for the last twenty years been involved in Hydro Tasmania’s participation in Australia’s National Electricity Market and will talk about the sector’s current mitigation strategies as they shift to sustainable energy production.

Midwinter Dinner and Lecture
by Susannah Fullerton 2021

The President and Council of The Royal Society of Tasmania warmly invite members and friends to the Midwinter Dinner to be held on Monday 12 July, 5:30 pm for 6, at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Marieville Esplanade, Sandy Bay, to enjoy an engaging talk by Susannah Fullerton OAM FRSN entitled:

“The Importance of Being Oscar: The Life and Works of Oscar Wilde”

followed by a two-course meal.

For COVID safety reasons, we need the acceptance form (found here) to be completed and returned to the office giving the name and address of each person attending. The form contains full details of the event.

Susannah Fullerton, OAM, FRS(N), has been president of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, this country’s largest literary society, for the past 22 years. She is the author of several books on Jane Austen and gives many talks around the world about her favourite novelist.

Susannah also gives talks at libraries, schools, the Art Gallery of NSW and State Library of NSW on many other famous writers, such as Pepys, Oscar Wilde, the Brontës, Dickens, Trollope and many more.  She has written Brief Encounters: Literary Travellers in Australia about famous authors visiting Australia, and has also written and recorded two audio CDs, Finding Katherine Mansfield and Poetry to Fill a Room.  Susannah also leads literary tours to the UK, France, Italy, Scandinavia, NZ and America for Australians Studying Abroad.