MWH Visit

MWH ,a global leader in the wet infrastructure sector, recently established the MWH Scholarship in Hydrogeology valued at $7,500 per annum to encourage students to undertake research and studies in the field of hydrogeology, the branch of geology that deals with the study of underground water and the geological aspects of surface water.

Inaugural scholarship winner, Kai Kinkella, met MWH representatives Resa Furey, Principal Market Analyst from MWH Americas,Colorado, and David Nyquest, Principal Hydrogeologist, MWH Projects Australia. Kai also attended the recent UWA The Celebration of Annual Giving evening, where he met Jed Youngs, the Principal Hydrogeologist and Group Manager for Natural Resources at the Perth branch of MWH. Jed is a UWA graduate.

Resa Furey, Kai Kinkella, David Nyquest

Neil Coles, Kai Kinkella, Jed Youngs

Another project sponsored by an industry group is Jun Jet Liew's honors project "Carbon Sequestration of Eucalyptus polybractea roots in the south west wheatbelt of Western Australia", supervised by Kim Brooksbank from the CoEE's Albany office, is being funded by industry partner the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC).

Jun Jet Liew

The Oil Mallee Industry of Western Australia is advocating mallee as suitable for multiple markets including carbon trading. To justify this they need to show that long term carbon value is being accumulated in the below ground biomass even as above ground biomass is displaced during harvest. Investigation of the relationships between above and below ground biomass and the comparison of coppiced trees to uncut trees will hep Jun Jet to develop a method to estimate below ground biomass based on non-destructive above ground measurements. Her research is based on the theory that root:shoot ratios increase as mallees are coppiced in rotations over long periods.