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30 December 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah

Gavin Dollman is one of the young researchers selected for the international research programme funded through the US-SA Higher Education Network. This prestigious programme is aimed at giving PhD candidates and their supervisors the opportunity to regularly travel to the USA and spend time at participating US universities where their co-promoters will be based.

“The University Staff Doctoral Programme (USDP) has allowed me to bring my idea of collaborative science to fruition. It’s an exciting opportunity,” Dollman said.

Dollman added that his PhD studies would focus on the machine and deep learning for prospecting for palaeontology. He is studying with the Appalachian State University. Other participating universities are Montana and Colorado State.

He has also had the privilege to work alongside a team of Geologists and Paleontologists from the universities of Birmingham, Zurich and Oxford in a project under the auspices of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Evolution Studies Institute (ESI) on a site in rural Eastern Cape.

“My role within this massive project is to perform a detailed survey of the sites and the surrounding area for later analysis. I used a drone known as the DJI Phantom 3 Pro with which I took hundreds of pictures that were later put together to create a detailed map,” he said.

“The maps allowed for virtual prospecting by the team and will in the long term serve as the basis for a predictive fossil model for the area.”

Dollman is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics on the Qwaqwa Campus.

News Archive

International Association of Hydrogeologists strengthens ties with IGS

2015-03-31

From the left are: Prof Neil Heideman, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Mr Shammy Puri, secretary-general of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, and Prof Danie Vermeulen, Director of the Institute for Groundwater Studies.
Photo: Supplied

The Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS) is in the process of establishing a SADC Groundwater Management Institute, sponsored by the World Bank. To coincide with this process, the IGS received a visit from Mr Shammy Puri, the secretary-general of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH).

“The aim of the visit was to further cooperation between the IAH and IGS regarding transboundary aquifers in the SADC region,” said Prof Danie Vermeulen, Director at the IGS.

The International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH/AIH) is a scientific and educational charitable organisation for scientists, engineers, water managers, and other professionals working in the fields of groundwater resource planning, management, and protection. The IAH is the leading international society for the science and practice of hydrogeology, and is a globally recognised information source and facilitator for the transfer of groundwater knowledge.

Mr Shammy Puri was elected Secretary-General of IAH in 2008, and chaired the Commission on Transboundary Aquifer Resources Management (TARM) from 1998 to 2011.

During his visit, Mr Puri also presented lectures to the postgraduate students at the Institute on Transboundary Aquifers. He was also invited by the Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Neil Heideman, to present the faculty prestige lecture later this year.

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