Contact Information

School: School of Earth Sciences
Address: The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway Perth WA 6009
Office Phone:
Email: mariaclara.lopespaula@research.uwa.edu.au

About

Maria is a Ph.D. Candidate at Data Analytics for Resources and Environments (DARE) ARC Training Centre and the Centre for Exploration Targeting at UWA. She completed her BSc in Geophysics at the University of Brasília and MSc in applied geophysics at the University of Brasília, Brazil. During her BSc, she wrote a course conclusion monograph addressing her studies using the geophysical method of Ground Penetrating Radar in the region of Patinha brook in the city of Tesouro, state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, to identify differences in reflections of electromagnetic waves in a gravelly environment of Diamond ore exploitation. In this study, it was possible to assess this method’s capacity to discriminate layers of different lithologies.

During her MSc, she continued her research with the Ground Penetrating Radar method in different applications. To accomplish the MSc requirements, she wrote a dissertation about her studies at radarfacies in auriferous placers at Baixada Cuiabana, Mato Grosso (Brazil). In this essay, she implemented some statistical analyses like semi-variogram and histograms to assess those methods’ ability to differentiate reflections patterns. Following this same line of research, she authored a paper titled “Study of Radarfacies in Auriferous Placers at Baixada Cuiabana, Mato Grosso (Brazil)”, which was published in Anuário do Instituto de Geociências, a peer-reviewed Brazilian earth sciences journal published by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She also contributed to a paper titled ‘Electrical Resistivity Applied to Manganese Mineralization in Castanheira, MT’ that was accepted at the 16th Congress of the Brazilian Society of Geophysics.

She has consulted for several organizations in Brazil, including Ambiental Technology, Integrated Solutions in Geotechnologies (SIGEO), and Intergeo Geoscience. During her first years of undergraduate, she became completely passionate about research, especially in mining, environmental protection, statistical analysis for data science, and its applications for geophysical methods using Python codes.

Maria began her Ph.D. with DARE in December 2021 under the supervision of Mark Lindsay, Mark Jessell, Edward Cripps, Lesley Gibson, and Guillaume Pirot. The aim of her research project is to model stygofauna and troglofauna habitats. This study will use a combination of geophysical and geological data, as well as biological information, and statistical data analysis combined with programming techniques to better-made predict and assess the shape and location of those habitats.

Additional Information

ORCID ID: click here
UWA Profile: click here