Published:
A group of early career scientist from around the UK has taken part in a new Heriot-Watt run course to bring them up to industry standard in scientific diving. Building on a 50 year Heriot-Watt scientific diving pedigree, the course was devised by Bill Sanderson, Joanne Porter, Dan Harries, Rob Cook and Hamish Mair, who together have more than 100 years of diving experience.
The NERC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training course in in-situ marine field identification and survey skills, based at Heriot-Watt’s International Centre for Island Technology (ICIT) in Orkney, involved training in diving, underwater photography and surveying and brought in expert photographic and diving collaborators Richard Shucksmith and Kieran Hatton.
Course organiser Bill Sanderson said that while all of the trainees had diving experience, the course enabled them to fully apply their skills to scientific work.
Feedback, he said, had been overwhelmingly positive and the team is hoping that the success of the initial courses will lead to funding to enable them to run on a regular basis.