MSc Environmental Monitoring and Analysis

Introduction

This vocational Masters degree provides candidates with a thorough training in methods for monitoring environmental quality, providing excellent employment prospects on completing the course. The emphasis of the course is on techniques, methods and applications, with a solid underpinning in theoretical knowledge and many of the courses include laboratory work, field sampling and analysis. These provide you with an excellent training for work in an environmental field. The MSc Environmental Monitoring and Analysis course, which is the longest running of the current MSc degrees in IGES, started in 1999, and graduates from this course are now employed by a range organisations including private environmental consultancies, the Environment Agency, other government bodies and water companies, as well as many having continued on to study for PhDs both here in Aberystwyth and at other UK universities. There is an ever-increasing demand for people with "hands on" field and laboratory skills, a detailed understanding of the geochemistry of the environment and the various guidelines governing environmental quality, and this course provides experience in all of these areas.

There is an active geochemistry research group at Aberystwyth which oversees 5 well equipped laboratories housing quadrupole and high resolution ICP-MS mass spectrometers for trace and ultra trace element analysis and these are coupled to solid state or Excimer laser ablation systems for in situ trace element analysis. We also have atomic absorption spectrophotometers for minor an trace metal analysis, ion chromatographs for the analysis of anions and cations in waters, an anodic stripping voltammeter for analysis of high dissolved solids solutions such as sea water as well as trace element and speciation analysis, a coulometer for C determination, as well as all the usual sample preparation and digestion facilities. These are house in a newly refurbished suite of analytical laboratories.

The MSc in Environmental Monitoring and Analysis addresses a broad, interdisciplinary approach to geochemistry combining elements of geology, environmental Earth sciences and physical geography, and we welcome graduates from the range of science disciplines including physicists, chemists, biologists and computer scientists, as well as geologists, geographers and environmental Earth scientists.

Semester 1

In the first semester students take 3 20-credit modules. Two of these modules provide knowledge of a wide range of generic research skills and techniques which will be of use in environmental employment, or as a foundation for academic research. The third course is the core module Field Techniques in Environmental Geochemistry which involves laboratory and field studies, introducing sampling and analytical methods for environmental analysis.

Semester 2

In the second semester students take a further 2 core modules and 1 optional module. The 2 core modules, Laboratory Techniques and Geochemistry of the Primary and Secondary Environments provide specific training in aspects of analytical and theoretical geochemistry appropriate to the study of the environment. The third, optional module is selected from a range of Masters modules on offer in IGES, but typically students opt to take a water quality module offered as core for the River Basins MSc course, as this is most relevant to a career in environmental quality.

Semester 3

The production of an independent research dissertation in Environmental Monitoring and Analysis during the third semester makes up the final 60 credits of the Masters degree and completes the course. Subjects for the dissertation usually fall in the general area of environmental geochemistry, and are discussed and agreed with potential supervisors early in Semester 2, allowing plenty of time to organise field and laboratory work. These often run as part of ongoing research projects in the Institute.

Potential dissertation topics

Dissertation projects over the last few years have involved studies of:

• Metal loading and contamination in waters from abandoned metal mines
• Domestic water supply and quality
• Trace metal speciation during diagenesis in contaminated sediments
• Geochemistry of Fe-Mn coatings on river pebbles in former mining areas
• Studies of weathering processes of metal mine wastes
• Geochemistry of urban roadside sediments
• Phytoremediation of Pb-Zn-Cu mining waste using rye grass
• Metal contamination and remobilization on smelter waste tips
• Boiabsorbtion of potentially harmful elements from mine drainiage
• Contamination of soils in urban "brownfield" sites
• Fingerprinting fossil fuel combustion from the trace element characteristics of flue deposits of carbonaceous particles
• Metal partitioning and speciation in soils in areas affected by mining

All of these projects are within areas of active research in IGES. Some of these projects have been pilot studies which have led on to PhD research projects, others fit in with larger research projects within IGES, involving all our MSc students in the research culture of the Institute.