 |
 |
Midland Valley's Structural Prize Competition Winners 2005 It's that time of year again when I have the delight of reading through and choosing the winners for the MV structure prize. It has been a joy this year the overall quality of the entries was excellent, from both the Postgraduates and a particularly impressive bunch of Undergraduate entries too. The big problem I had was making the choice - I am truly looking for the entries that give me a buzz and a real feeling of enthusiasm behind the science. 1st Prize Postgraduate - $2,000 ************************************** This year's 1st Prize Postgraduate winner of $2,000 is Robert Wilson from Durham University, for his really well put together and insightful work on basment structure controlling later deformation. That pushed some personal interest buttons for me, going way back to my own undergaduate work. Robert shows a real grasp for traditional tools, as well as being fluent in his use of sesimic and the new digital mapping games. 2nd Prize Postgraduate - $1,000 ************************************** Second Postgraduate prize of $1,000 goes to Stefano Tavani from the University of Rome for his work on growth of blind faults and propagation folding. Stefano's entry was on computer modelling and digital animations of growing structures, accompanied by an admirably short text entry. He showed a good use of mathematics and software to impact real geological problems, where we tend to use oversimplified solutions. The combination of good geological reasoning and appreciation with a high level of mathematical and computation skills is to be encouraged. 1st Prize Undergraduate - $1,500 ************************************** Of the Undergraduate entries, The 1st Prize for Undergraduate level of $1,500 goes to Lucie Mathieu an Erasmus student in Trinity College Dublin, who was a clear winner. Lucie mapped a classic area of Scottish Geology on the Ardnamurchan peninsula showing skill in classical mapping technique and to provide some lovely field sketches and to put her map together in a software mapping package. She then went on to make some very simple but telling analogue models to show how the fractures and intrusions could have developed. 2nd Prize Undergraduate - $500 ************************************** 2nd Prize of $500 goes to Rosa Polanco, Central University of Venezuela for a very nice piece of work from the Guarag basin again showing well delveloped skills in structural mapping at undergraduate level and a combination of data and good technique. Amongst the entries were some very noteworthy entries, including a very good Postgraduate paper on the microstrucutres in Queensland from Mohammad Sayab of the University of Peshawar and Rebecca Maguire of University of London who's field area was on Mars. Well done everyone and thank you for all your entries this year. It is clear that the future of structural geology will be in good hands if the entrants to this and previous year's structure prize are anything to go by. - Alan Gibbs All the winning papers are on the Midland Valley website: http://www.mve.com/Home/Company/Structural_Prize ** Winning students please contact Joanna Brownlee, [log in to unmask] with your contact details and the name of your university supervisor, to sort out your prize! 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 [log in to unmask] www.mve.com