Summer Jobs Program for Undergraduate University Students
2004-2005

What did you do last summer?
The Parker Centre was recently treated to interesting and quality talks by university students who had got their hands dirty over the summer vacation doing some hydrometallurgy research, mostly for the first time, in the Centre.

This year's Summer Jobs Program saw 17 students work at the Centre, chosen following interviews from 92 applicants from 17 different university campuses.

The Parker Centre funded 13 of these students while the remainder were supported by other funding.

The jobs program also had an international flavour this year with the participation of two South African students from the University of Cape Town (Nadia Barnes and Theresa Janse van Rensburg). These students took part in the program through the collaborative relationship between the Centre and the University of Cape Town.

Dr Dan Churach, the Centre's Education Program Manager, says the program started on 6 December 2004 with an afternoon orientation session for the participating students. "This session stamped the jobs program as a Parker Centre activity, marketed the Centre’s postgraduate program and provided some safety information," he says.

The jobs program concluded with a joint seminar session on 4 February 2005 at which the students gave short presentations about their research work over the summer.

"Prizes were awarded for the best presentations of the day," says Dr Churach. "The students were judged on how their talk was presented and how they handled questions as well as the actual technical content. Congratulations to all the prize winners."

First prize:
Danielle Thompson won 1^st prize for her talk titled "The effect of ultrasound on the dissolution of iron in an ammoniacal carbonate solution".

Runner-up prizes went to:
Theresa Janse van Rensburg - "Seed preparation for crystallisation experimentation".
Phillip Dundas - "Carbon activity and rate constants".
Kelechi Anyaegbu - "Re-design of the XPlot software".

Danielle Thompson presenting her prize-winning talk

The feedback from the students that day about the Summer Jobs Program included comments such as:

“A unique learning experience into how real research and lab work is done”

“Opened doors for new areas of research and networking”

"Amazing, it has furthered my interest in the minerals industry so much"

"It was an invaluable experience and generated an interest in research"

The Parker Centre researchers were "A friendly, flexible bunch, dedicated to providing a unique opportunity for the students" and "Patient, helpful, inspirational and dedicated to their research"

The Summer Jobs Program's aim of encouraging undergraduate university students to continue their involvement in hydrometallurgy, achieved in the inaugural year, was again achieved this year. Two of the 17 employed students are now doing Honours in the Parker Centre and one student is undertaking an MSc with the Centre.

Summer Students Presentation Day February 2005 Program (98 KB)

Summer Students Presentation Day February 2005 Abstracts and Biographies (1.7 MB)

Article about the 2003-2004 Summer Jobs Program