Hi everyone, I've got through reading the entries and have now contacted the
winners.

I'm planning to run the competiton again in 2004 and it real money as the
winners will tell you.



MIDLAND VALLEY STRUCTURAL PRIZE 2003!
**************************************************************


"At the start of the year I laid down a challenge to come up with "a good
short story with great visuals. Thrill me, and you win!" I was looking for
not just excellence but passion.

My choice of winners was somewhat capricious, as I was looking for that
different angle or spark reflecting personality as well as the science,
rather than looking dispassionately as I would have done as an external
examiner.

I have now finished reading the entries and thank you everyone who submitted
entries. I was impressed by the overall quality of the candidates
submissions and by the range of topics entered. They ranged from plate scale
tectonics, to micro scale and covered the whole range of modelling, to
classic field observation.

Great. I am impressed.

I had entries from universities around the world including, Egypt, Italy,
Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, US, China, Australia the US as well as from
the UK and the entrants came from an even wider range of nationalities.

As you know, I offered to make allowances for second language entrants and
was humbled by the obvious fact that many non-English native speakers could
write so well in their second language.

As one of Professor John Ramsey students in the '70's at Imperial College
London, I was a bit disappointed on one level, that I had relatively few
entries from the UK. But really that is as it should be, with innovation and
excellence spreading out like ripples to reach a global audience and then
spawning new centres of excellence - anywhere. But we are all entitled to a
bit of nostalgia!

Another change is that a high proportion of entries were from women, about a
third, compared with the one or two percent in the field in the seventies.
Not at the 50:50 talent split but definitely moving in the right direction!

A few entrant's sent their mug shots - and of course structural geologists
are still (almost) as good looking as in the seventies - I checked with my
male and female colleagues! Of course, I was amused and pleased to see, that
many of you are as arrogant as I think my generation were as students. We
have a word for it in Scotland - “Gallous”, which describes attitude in
young people that in equal measure, infuriates their elders and ensures that
tomorrow's leaders are definitely on their way.

OK, OK enough of the chat, who wins?

Starting with the undergraduates:

First Prize (undergraduate) goes to Fionna Meade for her entry on Transport
Directions of Nappes in Western Achill Island.

Fiona did a super job of firstly, getting to grips with understanding all
that strain theory and then applying it to some field problem, using and
integrating field work, analysis and computer models. It seemed that she has
a breadth of grasp that I would not have expected at undergraduate level. As
an ex-academic I managed to put a lot of people off structural geology
trying to teach this stuff and it was good to see someone enjoying and
getting to grips with this topic.


Second Prize (undergraduate) goes to Aisling Soden for her entry on Analogue
experimental simulation of the Valles caldera, New Mexico.
Again what impressed me here too was the ability to bring together
experimental and field data to make a clear point. Aisling's analogue models
were simple but compelling and clearly fun to do.

Now the post graduates. Which contained a mix of Masters, Doctorate and
"have just finished my dissertation" entries.

First Prize (postgraduate) goes to Fabio Torreggiani for his work on
Three-dimensional visualisation and modelling of landslides. Fabio has done
a super piece of work building a detailed structural model from field,
borehole remote sensed and geomorphic data, to come up with a really
excellent model for a landslide complex in Switzerland. Twenty first century
use 3d mapping tools; combined with classic structural work to come up with
something actually useful is what clinched this one for me.

Second Prize (post graduate) goes to Bronwyn Camac for her entry on
Integration of Cap and Fault Seal analysis using 3D discrete element code:
the Otway Basin, South Australia. Bronwyn tackled a huge problem from a
mathematical standpoint but was extremely well focused on applying the
modelling to throw light on a real problem and to bring in a wide range of
data in a highly intelligent manner. In this case the word "integration" in
the title wasn't just for window dressing as it is for many, she meant it.

We will be getting in touch with the prize winners and runner's up directly
to arrange the best way to get their prizes to them and to thank everyone
for contributing. We'll also put some of the technical highlights on the web
as soon as we can.

Finally, coming back to that word "Gallus" an entry from Ilaria Sasone and
Giovanni Toscani answered our challenge "are you the best?" on the poster we
sent around in no uncertain terms "Yes we are!" they said.  Pretty good
certainly, but for amusing me with their pitch they will be getting a bottle
of Midland Valley's whisky to share. Gallus indeed!

Thanks everyone, I enjoyed this so much that we're planning to run the
competition again next year. Watch this web site for details." -


Alan Gibbs










Dr Alan Gibbs
Director
Midland Valley Exploration
14 Park Circus
Glasgow
G3 6AX
tel: 44 (0) 141 332 2681
fax; 44 (0) 141 332 6792

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