21 July 2000 Around the globe in the cause of science

The international role of Lincoln University scientists has been well illustrated by the recent travels and work of environmental physicist Associate Professor Graeme Buchan.

A member of the Soil Science Group within Lincoln University's Soil, Plant and Ecological Sciences Division, Associate Professor Buchan was in Taiwan earlier this year, funded by the Asia 2000 Foundation, working on raising awareness and improving the management of water resources and initiating a new scientific and communication partnership between Taiwan and New Zealand.

Now, in the month just finished, he has been in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was invited to help with research on soil thermal properties. The invitation followed Professor Buchan's involvement in a four-nation scientific publication. He was the fourth co-author of a paper written by scientists from Canada, Italy, Germany and New Zealand called Modelling approaches to predicting thermal conductivity of soils at high temperatures.

The paper was published in the International Journal of Energy Research and the teamwork of the authors ‘hybridises’ two scientific disciplines – Professor Buchan's interest in soil thermal regimes from the agricultural and environmental perspectives and the interests of the Canadian lead author, engineer Professor Tarnawski, in engineering applications of soil heat flow.

The world-spanning visits also illustrate the busy life of university academics as they mix global research invitations with campus teaching and the supervision of postgraduate students.