Deploying hydrocarbon monitoring technologies in the 2019 NOFO oil-on-water field exercise

Xiubin Qi obtained her BSc (Chemistry) and MSc (Physical Chemistry) from Nanjing University (China) and her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of California, Davis (USA), in 2007. She joined CSIRO in 2008 and is currently a research scientist leading the Integrated Geochemical Science and Surveys team with CSIRO Energy, Oil, Gas and Fuels. Her work focuses on research and development of hydrocarbon detection systems for both environmental monitoring and oil exploration, through integration of multidisciplinary techniques that involve material science, instrumentation and statistical analysis. She worked as a chief scientist for 2 months, conducting an oil spill response survey following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. In 2014, she led the project, co-funded by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and CSIRO, to develop an integrated system (the Oil Fish) for oil-in-water monitoring and oil dispersant efficacy monitoring. She recently co-authored the ‘Oil Spill Monitoring Handbook’ (2016), at the request of AMSA, providing oil spill responders with most up-to-date monitoring science and technologies.

Mederic Mainson received his Bsc in Physics and Msc in Engineering. He has close to 20 years of experience of supporting science and scientist through innovative data acquisition system design and automated data processing. He joined CSIRO in 2015 as a project officer. He worked at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) from 2008 to 2015 and at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) from 2003 to 2008.

Emma Crooke completed a year-in-industry scholarship at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in 2004, before finishing her final year of a BE (Industrial Chemistry) at the University of New South Wales. She returned to ANSTO in 2006, to commission a new instrument for water stable isotopes and to perform carbon stable isotope measurement. Since joining CSIRO in 2007, she has been largely involved with field hydrocarbon detection and her role at various times has included materials testing, instrumental analysis, sensor development, marine sensor platform development, spill response technologies and laboratory facilities management.

Ian Hay received his Bachelor of Applied Science (Surveying and Mapping) from Curtin University. Most of his work has been in the geosciences, with an emphasis on GIS and data management. Ian joined CSIRO in 2019 and in his current role as a Geoscience Data Officer at CSIRO, he has been involved with data analytics and visualisation.

Andrew Ross has a BSc(Hons) in Marine Biology and Oceanography from the University of Wales, Bangor (1998), and subsequent MSc and PhD qualifications in Petroleum Geosciences from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (2000 and 2004). He is currently a research scientist and a group leader of the Exploration Geoscience group with CSIRO. He leads research projects focused on hydrocarbon seeps, the development of new hydrocarbon sensor devices and baseline and oil spill monitoring. He and his team were involved in the Gulf of Mexico MC252 spill response, spending 4 months monitoring surface waters in 2010 and undertaking hydrocarbon seep surveys close to the MC252 incident location in 2011. More recently, he has commenced a series of research projects to characterise the baseline hydrocarbon concentrations and geology of the Great Australian Bight. Andrew joined CSIRO in 2004 and has qualifications in marine biology, oceanography and petroleum geoscience.

Paul Irving has 36 years of experience in operational and policy roles across government, in Australia and New Zealand, predominantly focused on marine environmental management. His undergraduate qualifications are in marine science and ecology from the University of Auckland, complemented by MSc in natural resource management and fisheries economics from the University of Canterbury. Paul’s current position is Senior Adviser, Science and Technical Response, for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. As well as maritime spill response science, previous working experience includes fisheries management scientist; marine and coastal researcher and conservation manager; land transport environmental management, policy advice on Energy, infrastructure, and climate change, and Antarctic science policy. In his current role, Paul liaises with a wide variety of experts to provide technical advice on pollution response systems and materials and to implement intelligence systems supporting maritime emergency response operations. He also convenes the Australian National Plan Environment, Science and Technical (ES&T) Network and AMSA’s scientific and technical partners.