An Australian geochemist, retired CSIRO scientist Dr John W Smith, was this week presented the Alfred Treibs Medal by the Geochemical Society of America for outstanding achievements in organic geochemistry.
Dr Smith was one of the first organic geochemists in Australia and his original ideas on the origins of Australia's oil and gas deposits helped discover the current reserves. He also determined the carbon composition of lunar rocks for NASA to find out if extra-terrestrial life could ever have existed on the moon. The answer was no.
He established the stable light element isotope laboratory at CSIRO, North Ryde, which analyses the organic and inorganic constituents of rocks, playing a crucial role in the exploration for fossil fuels and mineral resources.
Dr Smith suggested that the composition of gases associated with the 250 - 300 million year old eastern Australian coal seams might be due to the biological reduction of carbon dioxide. This has had important implications for the utilisation and production of coal-seam methane for industrial and domestic markets.
Dr Smith retired from CSIRO in 1988. He has continued to work as a consultant with the CSIRO in such areas as isotope geochemistry, coal seam gas, pyrolysis experiments and the role of acetic acid in gas formation.
His publications have included research on hydrogen sulphide occurrences in coal mines, fast maturation rates of coals with high sulphur contents that affect their petroleum generative and coking properties and the use of isotope geochemistry to help explain the occurrence of gas with high sulphur content (sour gas).