Science, Technology and Engineering

Environmental Geoscience

Research Programs

Collaborative Research: Chemistry

Current environmental issues such as water resource management, air pollution, water pollution and waste treatment require knowledge of the chemical processes that influence each of these problems. Environmental Geoscience works with the Department of Chemistry to provide students with the opportunity to focus their research on areas including: atmospheric and water quality, clean industrial processes and environmental analytical procedures. Research projects can be carried out at a second year, third year, honours or postgraduate level.

Research projects could consider the following environmental issues:

• Contamination and treatment problems related to drinking water quality and/or the management of aquatic ecosystems in urban, natural and industrial settings
• Atmospheric pollution and air quality management
• Application of environmental analytical techniques to measure contaminants such as metals, ionic species and organic pollutants
• Study of ground and surface waters to improve the ability to manage catchments and water resources
• Development of cleaner processing techniques to minimize toxic waste production in industrial settings

Recent Honours Projects

Michelle Roberts (2005). Herbicide Extraction using Polymer Inclusion Membranes for Environmental Applications.

David Hill (2004). Development of Polymer Microspheres for the Extraction of Arsenic from Natural Waters.

Michelle Poidomani (2003). Identification of Azo Dyes in Waste Waters by High Performance Liquid Chromatography.

Andrew Wigley (2003). Effects of the Breaking Drought on Water Quality in Victorian Water Storages.

Danny McDonald (2001). Analysis of Arsenic Speciation in Natural Waters by Instrumental Methods (HG-AAS, IC and HPLC).

For further information contact:

Dr Ian Potter

Department of Chemistry