14 - European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling

ECORD Newsletter # 14 - May 2010 - www.ecord.org 17Report on a 2008-2009 DLP LecturerPeter CliftI was very happy to have the chance to act as a touring“Distinguished Lecturer” for ECORD for the period of late2008 to early 2010. Not only wasthis a great honour, but was a terrificopportunity to meet activists in theocean sciences, and especially theIODP community, across Europeand even further afield. At the startof my lectureship I had little ideahow much travelling and talking Iwould end up doing on the subjecton monsoons, mountain buildingand the European contribution toIODP. Indeed I had little idea howmuch time I would spend at the St Johns Harbourairport. This year the DLP ruleshad changed slightly compared tothe first round of DLP lectures in2007-2008. ECORD had mandatedthat my fellow lecturers and I shouldvisit non-European universities aswell as those in the consortium,provided those expenses were met bythese hosts. As a result I was able topublicize the drilling program, theEuropean contributions to IODPand climate-tectonic science beyondour own community to those in the Utrecht canal sceneUnited States, in Malaysia, in Chinaand in Australia. By the end of thetour I had given my presentation 29times, including 20 times in ECORDcountries, which now includes ourfriends in Canada, a fact of whichI had been only vaguely aware ofbefore getting my first invitationfrom the very friendly folk in St.Johns, Newfoundland, a city I hadnot visited since disembarking from Dinner in LisbonODP Leg 152, way back in 1993. Atleast geologically St. Johns is in Avalonia and on the Europeanside of the Iapetus suture, which is more than can be said ofmy home institution! Because the travelling was necessarily timeconsuming I tried hard to talk in two institutions for each journeyI made, where I could arrange this with neighbouring universities.Because I visited so many places it is not really feasible to recountthe many gracious hosts andinquisitive audiences I encountered,although I will cherish memories ofthe good people I met for a longtime. As well as stimulating sciencethe DLP programme was certainly achance to eat some interesting food,spanning curries in the Februarydrizzle of Liverpool, to pizza in thewarm October light of Florence,hearty sausages in chilly Novemberin Jena, baked cod in exotic Lisbonand 'nouvelle cuisine' moose in thebright but frigid Ottawa March.Attendances at the presentations wereencouragingly high and studentsin particular seemed enthused totake part in future IODP cruises,perhaps even some in the IndianOcean if and when that drillingoccurs. One particular benefit forme was the chance to air views toa really large and diverse audienceand to hear questions that I hadnot heard in the specialist sessionsat the normal large meetings. Aswell as thanking all the hosts whogave up so much of their own timeto make the visits a success, I wantto thank the excellent staff in theECORD offices and especiallyBonnie Wolff-Boenisch and JennyLezius for getting the paper workdone so quickly and advising mevery patiently with expense formsthat were then processed with greatefficiency. I would recommend theDLP to any member of the IODPcommunity both to take part in as a lecturer or to invite as a host.The programme is an asset to ECORD and to IODP.Peter Clift, University of Aberdeen UKECORD Distinguished Lecturer ProgrammeSince 2007 ECORD sponsors a Distinguished Lecturer Programme designed to bring the exciting scientificdiscoveries of the IODP to the geosciences community in ECORD and non-ECORD European countries.http://www.essac.ecord.org/index.php?mod=education&page=dlp