Andrew Rate

I research and teach in Environmental Geochemistry. Most recently my group and I have made progress in: understanding the behavior of trace elements and rare-earth elements in soils, sediments, water, and regolith; sulfidic sediments and acid sulfate soils, and; urban soils and sediments. I teach mainly in UWA's Environmental Science BSc and MSc degrees, covering environmental assessment, contaminated land rehabiitation, soil physics and chemistry, and environmental data analysis.

In the rest of my life I'm a husband, a dad to 2 great young women, and neurodiverse science geek. Love (in no particular order): being outdoors, doing field work, doing multivariate statistical analysis, making sciencey maps, hanging out with my family, getting good data, encouraging and teaching students, environmental and social justice, prog rock/metal, faith and mindfulness, playing guitar, poetry, phtography and drawing, cycling to work, movies, coffee, . . .

See '♦ Grants' and '♦ Research Output' tabs above, or https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew_Rate/info

Chair, School of Agriculture and Environment Education Committee and Board of Examiners (2023-2025)

Awards

• 2021 Postgraduate Teaching Award, School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia
• UWA Student Guild’s Students’ Choice Award for teaching in ENVT3361, Semester 1, 2017
• 2006 Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences Award for Excellence in Coursework Teaching (team award), for the unit EART1105 Earth and Environment: Dynamic Planet.

Active Learning: “learning by doing”

Social Constructivism: learning in a community where the 'teacher' is also a learner

Selected Recent PhD students:

• Dr Nian 'Elaine' Xu (PhD completed in 2018) "Sources and sinks of rare-earth and associated trace elements in sulfidic estuarine sediments"

• Dr Xin Du (PhD completed in 2012)
  "Occurrence and behaviour of rare earth and associated elements in lateritic regolith profiles, Western Australia"

• Dr Bree Morgan (PhD completed in 2012) "Sulfur geochemistry as a driver of trace metal, rare earth element and nutrient cycles in eutrophic estuarine sediment"

Examples of recent Honours and MSc Coursework/Dissertation students:

• Cassie Bond (MSc 2021) "Perth’s stormwater runoff systems as vectors for the transportation of microplastics to marine ecosystems"
• Anagibeth Choconta-Lopez (MSc 2021) "Geochemical Controls on biotope-suitability of vegetation communities in Australia"
• Natasha Lutz (Honours 2019 and Rhodes Scholar) "Accumulation and potential for transport of microplastics in stormwater drains, Perth region, Western Australia"

English
R