Dr Renjie Zhou1, Dr Sheree Armistead2, Dr Samuel Boone3, Dr Hayden Dalton3, Prof Andrew Gleadow3, Dr Yoann Gréau4, Dr Sally-Ann Hodgekiss4, Dr Fabian Kohlmann5, Prof Barry Kohn3, Prof Brent McInnes6, Dr Angus Nixon7, Dr Wayne Noble5, Prof Suzanne O’Reilly4, Prof David Philips3, Dr Alexander Prent6, Dr Tim Rawling8, Dr Moritz Theile5, Dr Bryant Ware6
1School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 2Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences, The University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia, 3School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia, 4Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 5Lithodat Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia, 6John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Australia, 7School of Physical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia, 8AuScope, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
The AuScope Geochemistry Laboratory Network (AGN) is a community-driven organisation that aims to maintain and strengthen the operation and growth of Australia’s geochemical research infrastructure and foster collaboration and professional development between laboratories and research end users. Currently the AGN collaboration includes 11 Australian universities and Museums Victoria.
The AGN consortium has collaborated with Lithodat Pty Ltd to develop the AusGeochem platform, a web-application data service used to find, add, extract or analyse diverse geochemical and geochronological data produced by Australian geochemistry laboratories. AusGeochem allows the community to upload data privately from the instrument to the platform linking analyses directly to sample metadata for processing and secure data dissemination to collaborators. Researchers can auto-generate unique IGSNs and QR codes for their sample collections via an internal app, which links to the Australian Research Data Commons IGSN registry.
AusGeochem is an advocate for FAIR principles by enabling researchers to link the data to research publications. The AGN has established several Expert Advisory Groups (EAGs) to build technique-specific interlaboratory metadata templates and data models. At various stages of implementation, the platform contains models of SIMS U-Pb, LA-ICP-MS U-Pb and Lu-Hf, Ar-Ar, fission track and (U-Th-Sm)/He data. Over the next year, platform capabilities will expand to more data types (e.g., whole-rock geochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry). The AGN is collaborating in the OneGeochemistry initiative, engaging in communal discussions regarding improving the discovery and access of global geochemical data as well as determining an international vocabulary of geochemical terms, key to reaching interoperability.
Biography:
Dr Renjie Zhou is a Senior Lecturer in Geochronology and Tectonics at The University of Queensland (UQ). He leads the fission-track low-temperature thermochronology lab at UQ. Dr Zhou’s research is centred around using geochronological methods to investigate Earth processes such as tectonic plate convergence and mountain building, landscape development and denudation, and the accumulation of natural resources.