UJ sets the pace in Geology Research

University sets the pace in geology research: Creamer Media's Mining Weekly, South Africa - 12 Jun 2008

Geology research in South Africa is growing significantly and the internationally competitive analytical infrastructure provided at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ’s) analytical facility is engaged in more than a dozen collaborative research programmes, with close ties being forged with the mining and industrial sectors, reports UJ geology head of department (HOD) Professor Bruce Cairncross. “Geology at UJ has consistently had an excellent international profile, particularly since it took the leading role in the Agouron Geobiology research project during recent years,” mentions Cairncross....

The analytical infrastructure of the UJ’s Faculty of Science has a unique, centralised analytical facility, housing over R75-million worth of analytical apparatus, much of which is used by geologists and mining-exploration commercial enterprises. The UJ Geology Department’s palaeomagnetic laboratory, by way of the approved upgrade and the acquisition of an automated superconducting rock magneto- meter (ASRM) will create the only fully functional, properly magnetically shielded room in Africa. The ASRM will permit the UJ geology department to become part of a consortium of palaeomagnetic laboratories collaborating with similar facilities at Caltech, MIT, Yale, and the University of Texas, in Austin, Occidental College and the US Geological Survey.