Information About People

Dr Richard Bates

Position: Senior Lecturer
Tel: +44 01334 463997
Fax: +44 01334 463949
E-mail: crb@st-and.ac.uk

Research Expertise Profile
Publications

Biography

I graduated with a B.Sc. (hons) in Geology from the University of Edinburgh in 1986. As a result of (one of the many crashes) in the oil industry I went on from there to do a PdD in applied geophysics at the School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor.  After completing the PhD (a study into the seismic anisotropy of unconsolidated marine sediments) I went to the US to work in the applied geophysics field for a number of consulting companies.  My first position was with Blackhawk Geosciences where I really learned what high resolution geophysics was all about as it was applied to a whole range of problems from environmental to mining to ground water.  Later, working for larger geophysical companies and the DoE I became involved with multicomponent seismic and naturally fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Since returning to the UK and joining St Andrews my focus of interest has returned to high resolution geophysics and the application to a range of issues from climate change studies to palaeo-environmental reconstruction.  I have built up a significant capacity for marine survey including multibeam sonar, sub-bottom and magnetic used mainly for benthic habitat mapping and maritime archaeological investigations and a similar capacity for terrestrial survey for archaeology and environmental mapping.

Profile

• BSc. Edinburgh, 1986
• PhD. University of Wales, 1989
• C.Geol 1994

Responsibilities

• Director MSc Managing Environmental Change
• Chair Geoscience Staff Student Committee
• Member Geoscience Teaching Council
• Career Advisor Geosciences

Teaching Interests

• Applied Geophysics
• Environmental Geosciences
• Marine Surveying
• Climate Change

Research Interests

• Applied geophysics for environmental, engineering and archaeological studies
• Palaeo-environmental Reconstruction
• Multicomponent Seismic

Postgraduate Students

• Melanie Chocholek

Publications

Bates C R and Oakley D 2004. Bathymetric sidescan investigation of sedimentary features in the Tay Estuary, Scotland. International Journal of Remote Sensing, v 25, pp. 5089-5104

Lamb H F, Bates C R., Coombes P V, Marshall M H, Umer M, Davies S J and Dejen E 2007. Late Pleistocene Desiccation of Lake Tana, Source of the Blue Nile. Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 26, pp. 287-299.

Bates C R, Lamb H F, M H, Umer 2007. High-resolution seismic investigation of Lake Tana, northern Ethiopia. Near Surface Geophysics, v. 5, pp. 241-248

Bates M R, Bates C R and Briant R M 2007. Bridging the gap: a terrestrial view of shallow marine sequences and the importance of the transition zone. Journal of Archaeological Sciences, v.34, pp. 1537-1551

Further Information

webpage: My home site