Iapetus News, May 2025
As noted in our previous newsletter, there was a general sense that effective communications across the DTP’s many organisations could be enhanced with an occasional newsletter. As we observed then, we are keen that this should contain and reflect the content that would be most useful to you: students, supervisors, and potential supervisors. As a result, it would be great to hear from you about what you would like to see in the newsletter. If you have thoughts on what you need to read about, or suggestions for things you could contribute, do please let us know. For now, read on for the latest news and developments.
Student conference 2025
In mid-May, many of us met for the annual student conference – this year, held jointly between Heriot-Watt University and the British Geological Society. The event was a great success, for which thanks are due in large part to the organising committee: Aelaf, Doug, Jinci and Maciej. As always, we are also grateful for all the work that Jen did (and continues to do) behind the scenes, as well as to the host organisations!
The talks were of excellent quality, poster sessions were convivial and informative, and Professor Colin Moffat, former marine adviser to the Scottish Government, gave a thought-provoking talk about the science/policy interface. The catering was abundant and well-received, the sun shone throughout, and Edinburgh looked stunning under blue skies – also providing the venue for the conference dinner (Kebabish).
Well done to all the presenters – but especially to the three prize-winners: Emma Cameron (10-minute presentation prize for “Are we correctly predicting how the ocean melts the Greenland Ice Sheet?”), Simeon Wilton (5-minute presentation prize for “Quantifying the Impact of Invasive Non-Native Species on Native Species and Habitats in Great Britain”) and Rodrigo Muñoz Cordovez (poster prize for “Drivers and resilience of urchin barrens in the UK Kelp forests”). Special mention, too, to Doug Smith for his phenomenal rendition of “Underground hydrogen storage: pore-scale to reservoir-scale” to the tune of “Don’t worry, be happy”. One of the most creative presentations that most of us have ever witnessed!
Prof. Colin Moffat spoke about his experiences of influencing government policy on national and international scales, as well as the ways that a PhD prepares you for the challenges you’ll encounter
Huge congratulations to Simeon, Rodrigo and Emma for well-deserved prizes amidst a highly competitive field
Kudos to Doug for an inspired presentation in the medium of song! Please let someone have captured the whole thing on video …
New conditions introduced by UKRI
UKRI are continuing to develop their ‘new deal’ for postgraduates. Important changes include modifications to the standard conditions of training grants (e.g., around medical and parental leave), and to provisions for students with disabilities. You can find out more about both of these sets of changes via the links below. Note that the new conditions will kick in at the start of October, whilst the new Disabled Students Allowance framework is effective immediately.
Community Forum - your feedback answered
As students will know and staff might now be aware, we have been piloting a new community forum for Iapetus. This is intended to facilitate communication and information sharing, without being subject to the vagaries of institutional login conflicts, the tyranny of email junk filters, or the sad reality of bloated inboxes.
Following our first six months of use, we have gathered your feedback and are currently implemented some changes, accordingly. The changes are ongoing, so we are in a brief period of transition. However, that should soon be over. The main changes were detailed at the conference but, for the benefit of those who couldn’t make it, here are the headlines:
- we have reorganised the spaces to make it easier to manage notifications.
- crucially, we have implemented a single space for all official information originating with Iapetus; this is the space you will definitely want to keep tabs on.
- there is now a student-only space, accessible only to students, Sam, Duncan & Jen; supervisors and institutional leads won’t even see that space.
- we will soon circulate a sign-up link to supervisors, who will have access to the rest of the forum (and to their own space), hopefully raising their awareness of what’s going on within Iapetus, generally.
In general, the community forum has already proven to be very useful. It has eased communication and, as a repository, it serves a clear function that was evidently lacking before. Early signs are that questions meet with more rapid and more authoritative responses if they are posted on the forum. The ability is also there for anyone to post opportunities they see that they think will be of interest to others, or resources that they have found useful. If you have questions or comments regarding the forum, let us know.
Congratulations!
Massive congratulations to Freya Muir (Glasgow University), who recently submitted her thesis on “Real-time Monitoring and Modelling of Coastal Change” – we hope you’re enjoying “life after thesis”!
It can be hard for us to keep track of who has submitted, and/or had their viva, and/or finished and graduated. Please do keep us up-to-date with your news!
Communications
As well as this newsletter and the Community Forum, you should be aware that Iapetus has a presence on Bluesky. Following overwhelming enthusiasm from students, we now also have a page on LinkedIn. Please follow the page and consider adding your work with Iapetus as one of your current roles, if relevant. One suggestion was that we can help to amplify your achievements via that page. However, we can only do that if you tag us in to those achievements – so please remember to do that! We (or, perhaps more accurately, I) know very little about how to be effective on LinkedIn, so please let us know if you’d be prepared to be a page editor, helping to promote the DTP and its people.
Publications
It can be very tricky for us to find out what Iapetus students are publishing. Obviously, the easiest way is to let us know yourselves, whenever you have a new paper. You can do that by emailing us, letting us know via the Community Forum, or by posting your article on online platforms (e.g., Bluesky or LinkedIn) and tagging Iapetus DTP. For now, a search of Web of Science ISI-listed articles to see which have listed Iapetus as a funder, over the past two years, reveals the following:
- Bradfer-Lawrence, T; Dobson, ADM; Finch, T; Fuentes-Montemayor, E; Hanley, N; Matthiopoulos, J; Nthambi, M; Simpson, K; Watts, K; Whytock, RC; Park, KJ (2025) Spillovers and legacies of land management on temperate woodland biodiversity. Nat. Ecol. Evol., http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02688-6
- Bauld, J; Lehmann, D; Bussière, LF; Bush, ER; Dimoto, E; Dikangadissi, JT; Ukizintambara, T; White, EC; Newton, J; Jones, IL; White, LJT; Musgrave, R; Abernethy, KA (2025) Rare Long-Term Data Reveal the Seasonal Dietary Plasticity of Mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) in Response to Fruiting Tree Phenology. Am. J. Primatol., http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajp.70012
- Elliott, R; Mccaffrey, K; Gregory, L; Wedmore, L (2025) Fault scarps as evidence of historical co-seismic slip – a study of postseismic scarp degradation following the 2016 Norcia earthquake. Geomorphology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2025.109662
- Callegari, R; Mazur, S; Mcclelland, WC; Barnes, CJ; Ziemniak, G; Majka, J (2025) Middle Cambrian convergence at the southwestern Baltica margin, Holy Cross Mts., Poland, and its significance for reconstructions of early Gondwana. Geosci. Front., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2024.101972
- Allan, ATL; LaBarge, LR; Bailey, AL; Jones, B; Mason, Z; Pinfield, T; Schroeder, F; Whitaker, A; White, AF; Wilkinson, H; Hill, RA (2024) Behavioural compatibility, not fear, best predicts the looking patterns of chacma baboons. Commun. Biol., http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-024-06657-w
- Stow, MA; Prytulak, J; Humphreys, MCS; Hammond, SJ; Nowell, GM (2024) Vanadium isotope fractionation during plutonic differentiation and implications for the isotopic composition of the upper continental crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.118825
- Moore, CD; Farman, DI; Särkinen, T; Stevenson, PC; Vallejo-Marín, M (2024) Floral scent changes in response to pollen removal are rare in buzz-pollinated Solanum. Planta, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00425-024-04403-4
- Foster, A; Wadsworth, FB; Tuffen, H; Unwin, HE; Humphreys, MCS (2024) Evidence for the formation of silicic lava by pyroclast sintering. Nat. Commun., http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49601-6
- Robson, EB; Milledge, DG; Utili, S; Bründl, M (2024) Cost-benefit methodology for road slope stabilisation. Transp. Geotech., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2024.101282
- Brown, AM; Bass, AM; White, S; Corr, M; Skiba, U; MacDonald, JM; Pickard, AE (2024) The impact of estuarine flushing on greenhouse gases: A study of the stratified Clyde estuary. Estuar. Coast. Shelf Sci., http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2024.108830
- Trudgill, M; Nuber, S; Block, HE; Crumpton-Banks, J; Jurikova, H; Littley, E; Shankle, M; Xu, C; Steele, RCJ; Rae, JWB (2024) A Simple, Low-Blank Batch Purification Method for High-Precision Boron Isotope Analysis. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023GC011350
- Ownsworth, E; Moros, M; Lloyd, J; Bennike, O; Jensen, JB; Blanz, T; Selby, D (2024) Multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Skagerrak from the Lateglacial to Middle Holocene. Boreas, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bor.12652
Congratulations to all the authors!
Please can we remind all students to acknowledge Iapetus when submitting manuscripts? – it will certainly make it easier for us to account to UKRI when they ask about the value of their investments. Assuming you were funded by DTP2, a suitable sentence for your acknowledgements would be along the lines of “XX was funded by a NERC IAPETUS2 DTP studentship (NE/S007431/1)”.
Have we included any articles in error? Have we missed any ISI-listed articles? Let us know!
Meet the team
As we noted previously, it can take a little while for new staff to find out who the Iapetus lead is for their institution. Here’s a reminder of who’s where …
Important information
Some dates to bear in mind:
- Iapetus Induction and Annual Development Event (Durham University): 20th-24th October 2025
- Iapetus winter residential training (The Sill, near Hexham): 12th-16th January 2026 (tbc – but pencil it in for now)
- Iapetus annual conference (hosted by St Andrews students): May 2026 (dates tbc)