Hi, welcome to our Open Day. In this presentation, I would like to talk about your opportunities
to study Geophysics at one of Europe's leading Geoscience centres.
My name is Chuang Xuan, an associate professor in Paleomagnetism. My research focuses
on understanding changes in Earth's magnetic field and what drives those changes.
I also study past changes in Earth's climate and I use patient magnetic field information
to date rocks and sediments. I am admissions
tutor for our geophysics degree courses. I contribute to about six modules in the school ocean
and the Earth science, and I teach for courses in Wales and Spain.
We are based at a universities waterfront campus, which is a community of around 100 scientists
and 900 students in world class tuition and research facilities.
So what does a geophysicist do? Geophysics is at the intersection of many sciences
geophysicists want to understand the fundamental physical processes and physical properties
of the Earth system. It includes investigating the driving
forces of plate tectonics. Geophysicists conduct seismic
and the electromagnetic surveys on land and in the ocean to help hazard assessment and hydrocarbon
exploration. They create 3D seismic images
that are often critical for marine geology, archaeology and engineering.
Geophysicists also study the causes and consequences of various physical processes,
such as changes in Earth's magnetic field.
And they develop a new equipment and  new analytical techniques for wide-ranging investigations.
At Southampton, you can choose to study traditional geophysical sciences or
if you want to equip yourself with more geological skills as well as contemporary geophysical
and quantity of skills, our geophysics and geology courses listed on the right
offer you. You have the option to pursue a three a bachelor's degree
or a four year master's degree. The four year programs provide a broader knowledge base
and allow a greater emphasis on research skills.
Entry requirements are ABB for our year BSc programs and AAB
for the four year master's programs. The traditional geophysical sciences courses
require physics and maths and the geophysics and geology courses require maths
plus another science subject. Our courses also offer opportunities
for you to study abroad. Entrance to the study abroad
programs are based on performance in year one exams. Students on this program
spend one semester in year three studying at one of our partner universities around the world.
This includes Penn State University in the United States, ETH Zurich in Switzerland
and the University of Adelaide in Australia. When you study at
Southampton each academic year comprises two teaching semesters.
Each semester is 12-week long. Students typically take four modules every
semester. Each module usually has two lectures and a three to six hours
of practicals every week. So on average, contact hours a week is about
25 hours. Students' work is assessed in many different ways,
including exams, coursework, report or essay writing and the presentations.
Some assessments are summative and account toward your degrees. But there are also many
formative assessments designed to help you identify, monitor gaps and improve
your learning. Our teaching is research led and student-
centered, and we place a strong emphasis on skill set demanded by employers.
We also invest extensively in educational infrastructure, including lecture theatres,
labs, computer rooms, library and field instruments.
Choosing a degree is challenging. We believe flexibility is key.
Our degree structure allows you to transfer between different pathways and in later years
you can tailor your degree towards your interests and career desires by choosing
the option of modules that you like. You can find detailed module information on
the geophysics courses following this link here.
You can move between a three year and four year programs. And apply to get onto
the study abroad programs. You can also switch from the geophysical sciences
courses to the geophysics and geology courses or even transfer to
our geology courses. If you're interested in our geology courses, make sure you check the geology
subject talk by my colleague Rex Taylor.
As a research led university, research is integral to our degrees, we
have the highest proportion of world leading staff of any large UK department.
So you will be taught by world experts in their fields. Our latest research
is fed directly into teaching and often forms the basis of BSc and MSci dissertation
projects, these projects offer great opportunities for students to
work in a huge diversity of laboratories investigating a range of exciting new science
topics together with world leading scientists. Now
let's hear from Deana, one of our fourth-year geophysics students, about her research project
experiences. Hello, my name is Deana Vella and I'm a fourth-year MSci geophysics
student at the University of Southampton. I'm currently working on my dissertation project,
Titled [the] reconstruction of geomagnetic field changes over the last four hundred thousand years.
Geophysics students are provided with a list of potential dissertation projects before their final year.
These projects cover a wide range of topics. We then choose the projects we're interested in
and could meet with potential supervisors to discuss the projects and make a final decision. In
my case, I previously did a mini project on paleomagnetism and enjoyed it, so much that I was
keen to work on a project in the field for my dissertation. Over the last academic
year, I've been working and constructing continuous records that show how the earth's magnetic field changes through time.
This is important as the earth's magnetic field is essential for life on our planet as it provides a shield for the earth from
harmful solar winds and cosmic rays. I use sediments from Liberia
recovered by the International Ocean Discovery Program for my study. These sediments continuously
recorded geomagnetic information when they were deposited on the seafloor. The magnetic
signals preserved in the sediments were measured using a superconducting magnetometer as shown here.
Using these measurements, I was able to construct records showing changes to the geomagnetic field over
the last four hundred thousand years, Clearly, strength of magnetic fields have changed dramatically
during this time period. I'm currently finalising my dissertation and in the meantime preparing
to publish some of my results together with my supervisor. Working on this project
has been a fantastic experience of learning and exploring and I've greatly enjoyed it. Thank you.
Thanks, Deana, for sharing your experience. At Southampton, we strive
to get our students involved in our research wherever possible. This experience is a
great asset to have on any CV and will give students a head start in the job market.
Some of this work gets published. Here are a couple of examples of research articles published.
by our geophysics students in highly rated earth science journals.
We believe field work skills are essential for geophysicists and we are proud of our
field work program. Geophysics students have opportunities to go on a range
of a residential field trips, as well as short field excursions and cruises in the UK
and abroad to build up their fieldwork skills. Now let's hear from one
of our third-year students about his field work experience. Hi,
everyone. My name is Barnabus. I'm a third year geophysics student at the University of Southampton.
I'm very glad to share with you my fieldwork experience during my study here.
An important basis of the geophysics cause lies in geology. So most of our first year
trips are joined with the geologists. In year one, we spend one week in
Tenby, Wales, and then another week in Ingleton, Yorkshire. During these trips,
we learn and practice fundamental skills in making and recording observations in this field
as well as the construction of geological maps. In year two we go on
an eight day field trip to Brittany in France. We learn how to plan and carry
out geophysical surveys and receive training in the use of a wide range of geophysical instrumentation.
You can see some of the instruments we use in the photos and videos on the right. We
work as a team, collect and process the data together, but write independent reports
on our work. During the trip, we stayed in the traditional French farmhouse.
I also enjoyed the amazing local cuisine, both the countryside and beautiful beach that
is only 10 minutes walk away. In year three
MSci geophysics students go on a four day trip to Cornwall, which includes day
trips to beaches on both sides of the Cornish coast. This is a trip
during which we will put our knowledge and skills in both geophysics and geology
into use and develop understanding of the fantastic geology of the area.
I am very much looking forward to this trip. In addition to the residential
field trips, we also went on a list of short field excursions to areas near
Southampton and Dorset. These include two days on the university's
research vessel, Callista, to learn marine surveying, and expand exploration techniques,
as well as a day trips to law with Cove and the Isle of Portland,
focused on practising mapping and sedimentary geology. There are more
field trip opportunities, depending on the option of modules we choose. For example,
I think the Vulcanic and Mantle Processes module and as part of the module study, I went on
a one week trip to Tenerife. It is definitely one of my best of the experience
of the university. All the field trips are very well organized. They offer excellent
and often exciting learning environment and opportunities. I have greatly enjoyed all of them
and think you will do too. Thank you. Thanks, Barnabus,
for sharing your field work experience. Now, I want to add that students on the BSc and
MSci geophysics and geology degrees have opportunities to do more fieldwork.
In addition to the field trips we have talked about in year two, they will spend two weeks in Spain.
They were build on basic field skills acquired a year 1, learn new techniques and develop
better integrity of skills which will help them become more confident and independent
working in the field. In year three MSci geophysics and geology students
will join the geologists and complete a five-week independent mapping project.
Students get to pick from a list of mapping area in Scotland, Ireland, Spain
and Cyprus. They will put all the skills they have gained in previous trips into
practice and progress through this project. They will record
their detailed work in the field. And also they will produce an interpretive geological map
as well as a comprehensive report of this trip.
We make efforts to raise career awareness of our students and encourage them to consider
career development from year one. School of Ocean and Earth Science has excellent links
with many companies that provide work experience opportunities. We encourage
and take our students to attend international careers, events and professional conferences.
We also run our own annual careers day, during which we invite our successful
graduates to come back and talk to current students about how they got
their job, what to put on a CV, how to prepare for interviews, what skills
the companies are looking for, and so on. A degree in geophysics
is a passport to employment in a wide variety of different sectors. Geophysicists
are currently recognized by the government as being in short supply, but are required
to meet key strategic needs in the UK. Our
students get jobs when they graduate. We make efforts to track where they go
based on responses from our graduates. In the last 5 years, 86 percent of them
secured employment or went on with further study within six months of graduation.
I want to point out that this is a minimum estimate as unknown destinations does not necessarily
mean unemployment. Among the students with secured employment or
went on further study. 62 percent of them were employed on geophysics related
jobs in environment, geophysics, geoscience, engineering and the mining
and resources sectors. Twenty percent of them went on to do the PhD
on master's degree because of the transferable skills gained during
the course. Eighteen percent of them secured non-geophysics jobs in management,
finance or software or technology companies.
Students are very satisfied about their learning experience on the causes. According to the national
student survey, our teaching quality and the learning resources have been consistently rated
very high in the past three years. I would like to sum up
buy a few bullet points on why we think you should study  geophysics at Southampton.
We are a world class centre of research led teaching, with world leading staff and outstanding
facilities. Our geophysics degree structure offers great flexibility
in transferring between courses and also in choosing modules to tailor your degree according
to your interests and career desires. Our staff are very approachable
and friendly and they provide a diverse and collaborative learning environment.
We have very strong links with industry and our students develop the skills sought by employers
and have an excellent track record of securing jobs around the world.
Thank you very much for listening. I hope you find this story informative if you have any questions.
Please get in touch. We will also be available online on the virtual open day to answer questions
directly.
