YP Evening Lecture

From Sherlock Holmes to CSI: How Geologists Solve Crimes

The 2017 YP Lecture was presented by Professor Lorna Dawson, Head of Forensic Soil Science at the James Hutton Institute. The event, hosted by the PESGB YP Committee was held in London on the 11th of July and mirrored in Aberdeen on the 15th of August.

While Lorna was impressed by our gory blood spattered event poster, she explained that solving crime is not like CSI, Criminal Minds or Law & Order.

She highlighted that a crime is successfully solved when evidence is examined by individuals from multiple complimenting sciences working together as a collaborative team. All of the results must be overlain to successfully reconstruct what happened at the point in time that the crime was committed.

Lorna impressed upon the audience that her job is to convince jurors, not geoscientists of the significance of soil evidence. Her challenge communicating this complex scientific information to everyday people and emphasising that unlike the TV dramas, you cannot solve a crime with a single piece of evidence.

With advances in technology, Lorna explained how trace minerals found at a crime site or the soil under a victims fingernails is more than enough to tie the evidence to a geographical location. The audiences were impressed when she showed a video clip from the One Show where she successfully narrowed down a 100km2 area from the 300,000km2 of the UK using one muddy boot!

The lecture ended with examples of the use of soil science in a number of high profile cases that she had worked on. Lorna presented a fantastic insight into personal experiences where a piece of gravel, a small fragment of soil and even a microscopic flake of metal from a spade unravelled the details of a crime and ensured that the perpetrators were caught.

On behalf of the PESGB YPs and all attendees in London and Aberdeen, thank you for the fascinating lecture!

London PESGB YP & AAPG YP Summer Networking 2017

The 8th August saw the PESGB YP and AAPG YPs host their joint summer networking event. This summer the event was held at the Buckingham Arms in Westminster. The pub provided a welcoming and friendly environment for all who attended.

We would like to thank all those who attended, both regulars to our events and newcomers. We hope all who came along found the event a useful platform from which to develop and grow their professional network. We hope you can join us at our next joint social – our annual Christmas quiz! Watch this space for more information!

Amusement Arcade Evening

In a break from beach based activities the PESGB YP’s made the short jump to the Amusement arcade where we spent a relaxed evening enjoying, American pool, music, arcade games along with a few drinks.

It provided the back drop to a valuable catch up and the opportunity to discuss the latest industry news. Attendees were drawn from a wide range of service companies, operators and academia giving a good balance of perspectives. The mood was certainly one of cautious optimism with many commenting on the increasing volume of projects in the pipeline.

As the evening unfolded there was stiff competition between members with the Petrolink-Aberdeen University team eventually being crowned AirHockey champions.