Download R. Palin

I would like to thank the committee again for granting me £160 to assist in covering expenses for this course.
‘High-grade metamorphism and the generation and differentiation of Earth's crust’ short course at the
Geocycles research centre, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
This short course was led by Prof. Mike Brown, Prof. Richard White and Dr Tim Johnson on 4 th-5th July, 2013,
and included lecture- and tutorial-style elements that investigated the evidence for, links between, and methods
of investigation of high-temperature metamorphism and associated partial melting in the Earth’s crust. Having
studied a variety of migmatites in the past I was very excited to hear the opinions of Prof. Brown (in particular)
on the aspects of their genesis, who is well-known to be a world expert in this field of study. As a result, I have
re-evaluated some of my perspectives on the matter and the discussions have prompted me to re-investigate
some of my samples with these new concepts in mind! The material presented by Prof. White involved
applications of the program THERMOCALC to solve complex problems associated with the textural and
compositional development of partially melted rocks, and I was very interested to learn more about these
techniques. My postgraduate work has investigated the strengths and limitations of similar practices to the
calculation of P–T data and, having attended this short course, I am now able to add these methods to my
skillset for future works. In addition, Dr Johnson presented a case study of high-grade metamorphism in the
Lewisian Complex of northwest Scotland, which was thoroughly enjoyable as I have had the opportunity to
study these rocks first-hand on many occasions during my demonstrating on undergraduate fieldtrips at the
University of Oxford. I was intrigued to hear about his work and his ideas on the evolution of the area, and I
spoke with him afterwards and showed
him some of my own samples, which has
potentially set up a future collaborative
research opportunity. These networking
opportunities are of great benefit for my
future academic career. Thus, for all of
these reasons (and more!) this trip was a
great success and I will endeavour to
attend any similar events in the future.