Hear from STARS student Marta Cattin, about her role with Lancaster EcoHub and how it has kept her going during the COVID-19 lockdown.  I became the president of the EcoHub society in February 2020. This is a society run by students and here they grow vegetables and fruit organically. I like going there because I […]

Mihai Cimpoiasu reports on his 3-month placement at the University of Liège in Belgium where his expertise in imaging technology and geoelectrical methods was put to good use in quantifying the impact on soil structure, of long-term accumulation of charcoal.  While much work has been done on the short-term effects of charcoal on soil, there […]

Tom Bott reports on his research trip to France. My project is interested in how soil microbiology changes when there is an increase in the amount of methane and other gases such as ethane and propane (collectively called alkanes). Such gases may originate from the geology below the site, for example from oil or gas […]

STARS students once again organised a session at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly. The EGU is a week-long gathering of Geoscientists from all over the world who come together to share and discuss their research in all areas of geoscience. This year, due to COVID-19, STARS students were among the pioneers to take the […]

STARS CDT are delighted to be able to announce the appointment of Legacy Fellow, Dan Evans. Dan will be taking up the post, on a part time basis, in December. This is an exciting development for STARS, building on the tremendous amount of work put in by our students and supervisors; we want to capture […]

Sam Musarika reports on a recent STARS course. PhD projects are complicated and are sometimes not easy to communicate. What might seem to be an interesting project to the researcher and his fellows could be easily dismissed by those outside that sphere of interest. It is important therefore that a researcher presents their work in […]

Leigh-Anne Kemp, a 2nd year STARS PhD student, reports on an International Knowledge Exchange visit. I recently completed a month-long international interdisciplinary internship at Ohio State University. I was invited to work with Dr Bennett’s lab group focusing on the effects of selenium leaching from mining activities on microbial communities. My internship was twofold. First […]

Lucy Greenfield, a 3rd year STARS PhD student, reports on an International Knowledge Exchange visit. I recently travelled to the University of Göttingen for a month to learn the technique of enzyme photography or zymography from Dr Bahar Razavi. Enzymes are released into the soil by microorganisms to aid the breakdown of many soil compounds.  […]

I recently finished a three-month placement at Ramboll, a civil engineering consultancy, in Southampton. I was given the opportunity to work with the Environment team there as part of an industry placement funded by the National Productivity Investment Fund (NPIF). During my placement I helped out with many different projects and got a great overview […]