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I started a PhD in aquatic geochemistry at the University of Iceland working on the CarbFix Project. I had graduated with a Masters from Utrecht University (Netherlands) where I studied Hydrology and Geochemistry and from George Washington University with degrees in Geological Science and Environmental Studies.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

A once in a lifetime opportunity!

This will be an out of the ordinary post and I know I still need to post about my trips to Istanbul, Germany and London...but that will have to wait since I am so excited about my masters' research!!!

Pretty much a bunch of us here at Utrecht University were freaking out about what to do for our masters' thesis or research next year in general.  We had heard rumours of a list that was suppose to be emailed out of a research opportunities with various professors.  Luckily my friend, Matthew, found it online and slowly this list trickled out to the rest of us (finally being emailed out last Friday after we told a professor).  As I was scanning this list I noticed the following project:

The UNBC Quesnel River Research Centre is located on the Quesnel River in the foothills of the Cariboo Mountains. It is surrounded by lakes, rivers, and streams that act as linkages to the various landscapes in the area. This project will use remote sediment sampling traps to collect samples of suspended sediment from several tributaries in the Quesnel watershed with different land use activities. Samples will also be collected from reference sites and from the main stem of the Quesnel River. Samples of channel bed sediment will also be collected from these sites. The aim is to determine the effect of land use activities on sediment geochemistry in the Quesnel watershed. 

Prof. Marcel van der Perk with two Utrecht University students
The name of this project is "effect of land-used activities on sediment-associated geochemistry in the Quesnel catchment."  Basically this would combine my background in Geology with my current focus on Hydrology.  I am taking two Geochemistry courses the next quarter so that should help and since I am interested anyways in the effect of anthropogenic activities, all in all it sounded like a good project.  Plus, I had been potentially interested in doing a project or a job up in Canada.

So...I met with the professor in charge, Prof. Marcel van der Perk, this past Monday to talk about the project and everything involved.  He has connections with the University of Northern British Columbia, who run a centre called the Quesnel River Research Centre, and it would be the third time students from Utrecht University would be going out to do research in the area (it started about 5 years ago).   I would be working on this project with a fellow student from the Netherlands who is also a Hydrology Masters student.  Together we would collect the samples from various locations in the Quesnel River catchment, often in remote locations.  Then prepare them and send them off to be analysed, which would take about 4 weeks or so.  The data collection would be done over a period of 8 weeks more or less during late summer/early fall. And afterwards we would return to Utrecht to write our master thesis based on the data collected.

Quesnel River Research Centre
There are actually a lot of things that need to be done in preparation for the trip out there.  We need to apply for funding as currently there is nothing set aside for this, though potentially UNBC might have some available.  I am kind of nervous about that as I have never applied for something like this before, but the professor in charge is willing to write us support letters and recommendations and he gave us a couple suggestions to work off of. The last two students who went were able to get most expenses covered so fingers crossed that we will be just as successful.

The research centre we are staying at is located in a village called Likely, British Columbia - a remnant settlement of the gold rush period - that is on the deepest fjord lake in the world to the west of the Cariboo Mountains.  The nearest large town is Williams Lake, a 1-2 hour drive away.  Vancouver is a 9 hour drive and both Calgary and Edmonton in Alberta are 13 hour drives away since you have to pass through the Canadian Rockies.  Up there roads are not straight, but meander along the topography, or even just end and never go further.  Growing up mostly in America, it can be quite strange as one gets quite used to having multiple options of reaching a particular destination, but the farther north and more rural you get in Canada, there really is one road or you have to take a small plane.


Likely, British Columbia
The village has one general store some kms away from the centre so we will need a car up there, also in case we want to drive into Williams Lake for other stores.  The last two students bought a car for two months...and I am hoping that would be our last option.  I talked to my father and he is going to ask my family in Vancouver and Alberta if they have an extra car or know of any good options, but if anything I do have my good reliable 2001 Saturn sedan in New Jersey!  So what does this mean?!? Potential road trip, which would be totally awesome!  It would probably take a good 4-5 days to reach Likely, but I would most likely need to work in a couple days extra in case something happens or if I want to take an afternoon off.  I still of course do not know the details yet, but at least I know I definitely have a car available to get around.  Yeah it would put a lot of miles on my car, but it is over 10 years old and hasn't reached 100,000 miles yet so maybe it is time for it to reach that milestone :P

 Grizzly Bear print
Other things we need to do are to get First Aid certification (I would think preferably Wilderness/Remote as opposed to just normal) and training in how to react to grizzly bears as there are definitely some in the area...I mean this is the middle of nowhere we are talking about.  Also we will need to be flexible in terms of the locations of our samples as we probably will not know of it until we get there.

After discussing with the other student about potential dates we would do fieldwork, it is looking to be around August 6 to October 6.  We decided to try and plan for 9 weeks so we could take a little break in the middle and do some sightseeing or even visit my family (which I really hope happens at some point)!!  Unfortunately this will cut into my time with family and friends in America, but this is honestly an opportunity I cannot pass up.  Plus I might be able to take on a week or two after the fieldwork to be in America before heading back to the Netherlands.

Qusenel Lake with Cariboo Mountains
The centre itself should be comfortable as up to 14 people can stay there in bedrooms for 1 or 2 people and there is a living room/common area.  Supposedly there will be times where it will be filled with people on field trips or have barely anyone and be quite quiet.  I think it will be a good opportunity to meet new people, especially since I expect to meet other students from the University of Northern British Columbia as it is based in Prince George about 3.5 hours drive north of Likely.

To be quite honest, this is a mini-dream come true for me because I have always been interested in living in a rural location and now I have the chance to see if I like it at all.  It will be a nice change of scenery for me having lived in Washington, DC for five years and the Netherlands the past year.  I do like it here, but I really do miss the various types of geography you find in America and Canada, so that should definitely quell some of that homesickness! And it would be nice to potentially contribute to the country I am technically a citizen of, especially since I currently have not been able to be there much.

Anyways, if anyone is interested in a potential road trip in early August from eastern America up to western Canada or in early October back from Canada to New Jersey, let me know! It would definitely help to have another driver or two, plus if you have never see much of the America...honestly you need to, it such a huge country and has so many different sides to it, it is hard to really sometimes define what it is.  Plus, road trips are always fun!


And how can one resist this type of scenery?!?!
Photos courtesy of Quesnel River Research Centre.

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