International LED 2017 (Capetown, South Africa)

15th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating (LED 2017)

11-15 September 2017

Host institution

Rhodes University, South Africa

Venue

The Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel, Strand Street, Cape Town

Local Organising Committee

Makaiko Chithambo (Rhodes University, Chairman), Robert Dawam (Rhodes University), Damilola Folley (Rhodes University), Anurag Pandey (Rhodes University), Sunil Thomas (Rhodes University), Mary Evans (University of the Witwatersrand), Ebenezer Oniya (Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria)

Scientific Advisory Committee

Christina Ankejaergaard (DTU NUTECH, Denmark), Makaiko Chithambo (Rhodes University, South Africa), Mathieu Duval (Griffith University, Australia), Mauro Fasoli (Università di Milano-Bicocca, Italy), Bo Li (University of Wollongong, Australia), George Polymeris (Ankara University, Turkey), Frank Preusser (University of Freiburg, Germany), André Sawakuchi (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)

Book of Abstracts

Proceedings

Radiation Measurements (2018), Vol. 120

Quaternary Geochronology (2019), Vol. 49

Short description

Led by Makaiko Chithambo, a team from Rhodes University as listed above organized the 15th Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating conference (LED 2017) between September 11th and 15th, 2017, at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. The meeting was attended by over 150 delegates from some 31 countries. A mid-conference excursion led by Dr. John Crompton introduced participants to the geology of Cape Town and a post-conference fieldtrip was made to the well-researched Pinnacle Point Cave in Mossel Bay, guided by Dr. Peter Nilssen. Delegates will recall the recitation by Sange, a praise poet, who gave an impassioned extolling of the virtues of knowledge. The Khayelitsha Mambazo acapella ensemble group entertained delegates at the gala dinner with their isicathamiya and mbube singing. Invited lectures were given by Georgina King (luminescence thermochronometry), André Sawakuchi (luminescence of sedimentary quartz), Li Sheng-Hua (luminescence age limits), Makaiko Chithambo (time-resolved luminescence), Sumiko Tsukamoto (ESR of quartz applied to dating and  hermochronology) and Reza Sohbati (luminescence dating of rock surfaces). There was a 1-day workshop on a range of analytical software tools (including BayLum, DRAC and Analyst) as well as sessions on the use of DosiVox and Analyst integrated with R. Some 200 papers were presented at the conference and the proceedings are available in Radiation Measurements (2018), Vol. 120 and Quaternary Geochronology (2019), Vol. 49.  Seven students received prizes in various categories. The Martin Aitken Prize for the best oral presentation on fundamental was jointly received by Johannes Friedrich and Nathan Brown. Elizabeth Chamberlain and Ian del Rio were each awarded the Vagn Mejdahl Prize for the best poster presentation on applications. The Ann Wintle Prize for the best oral presentation on applications went to Harrison Gray and Benjamin Lehmann each. Raju Kumar received the Peter Townsend Prize for the most innovative idea in instrumentation and methodology, Peter Hunter received the John Vogel Prize for the best poster paper on instrumentation, and Aditi Krishna Dave, Svenja Riedesel and Elisha Teo jointly received the Nicolas Copernicus Prize as the ‘brightest young stars’. A special award instituted at LED 2017, namely the Cape Town award for excellence in luminescence research, was made to Prof. Reuven Chen for distinguished and extensive contributions to the field of luminescence and related phenomena.

Information provided by Makaiko Chithambo, Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, South Africa (m.chithambo@ru.ac.za)