Gary Hancock

		Research Scientist
		CSIRO Land and Water GPO Box 1666 Canberra ACT 2601 Ph: +61-2-6246 5739 Fax: +61-2-6246 5800 Email: Gary Hancock

Gary Hancock is a Research Scientist in the Catchment and Aquatic Systems research program.

Gary has 26 years experience researching the behaviour of heavy metals and radionuclides in the environment. Specifically, he has contributed to the measurement and modelling of the transport of natural and man-made radionuclides to estimate rates of soil erosion, sediment transport and sediment deposition. Hancock’s other major research area includes the study of the source and fate of solutes and particles in near-shore marine waters.

He has led and contributed to research projects in the Moreton Bay, Gippsland, Western Port, Port Phillip Bay, and the Herbert River and Bowen River catchments.

Expertise

• ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs and Pu geochronology, specifically sedimentation rates pre- and post-European settlement 
• Erosion process sourcing in river catchments using tracers
• The application of ²²²Rn and Ra isotopes as tracers of groundwater discharge in the near-shore zone.

Academic Qualifications

• B.Sc., (Physical Chemistry), University of Adelaide, 1978
• M.Sc., (Geology), Australian National University, 1993

Professional Society Memberships

• American Geophysical Union
• Royal Australian Chemical Institute

Awards and Achievements

• 2003 CSIRO Land and Water Teamwork Award, 2003 (Western Port Sediment Study)
• 2000 Invited as Chair for the international SPERA workshop “Radiological Techniques in Sedimentation Studies” held in Noumea, New Caledonia (PDF, external link)
• 1997 Invited speaker at the 50th Anniversary PRL Conference “Isotopes in the Solar System” held in Amedabad, India.

Publications

Gary Hancock has authored 38 international journal papers and 27 other refereed publications:
CSIRO Land and Water publications list
Personal publications list (PDF, 27 kB)

Selected Publications
Hancock, G.J., Wilkinson, S.N. and Read A. (2007). Sources of sediment and nutrients to the Gippsland Lakes assessed using catchment modelling and sediment tracers. CSIRO Land and Water Science Report 70/07.

Hancock, G.J., Webster, I. T. and Stieglitz, T. C. (2006). Horizontal mixing of Great Barrier Reef waters: Offshore diffusivity determined from radium isotope distribution. Journal of Geophysical Research, 111, C12019, doi:10.1029/2006JC003608.

Hancock, G.J., Webster, I.T., Ford, P.F. and Moore W.S. (2000). Using Ra isotopes to examine transport processes controlling benthic fluxes into a shallow estuarine lagoon. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 64, 3685-3699.

Hancock, G.J., Olley, J.M. and Wallbrink, P.J. (2001). Sediment transport and accumulation in Westernport. CSIRO Land and Water Technical Report  47/01.

Hancock, G.J. (2000). Identifying resuspended sediment in an estuary using the 228Th/232Th activity ratio: the fate of lagoon sediment in the Bega River estuary, Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research, 51, 659-67.