Anne's viva (verbal examination) was on 26th October 2007 and she was told that the degree would be awarded without any changes being needed to her thesis. The formal presentation ceremony will be in July 2008.

A doctor of philosophy degree (PhD) is awarded for significant, original research that, in the opinion of the university, adds to the knowledge base in a particular subject.

The doctoral thesis is held by the university and may be used as a creditable reference by other researchers in the field

The title of Anne's thesis is ‘Investigations into the Recycling of Quarry Waste’.

Anne took four different quarry wastes, characterized and analysed them, and found that they contained an excess of 'fines' for engineering purposes.

She then mixed the fines with various binders in order to increase their particle size and found cementitious binders to be the best. She used waste cementitious materials to bind the quarry wastes into pellets.

Next, Anne applied a new process that created calcite within the pellets, effectively converting them into artificial limestone.

It was necessary to perform many tests on the new aggregate to assess its engineering properties, in particular its strength, and to determine the chemical properties of what had been made. The work involved much analytical chemistry and microscopic work, including X-Ray Diffraction and Scanning Electron Microscope analysis.

In total, the whole PhD took Anne two years full time and two years part time to complete.

The achievement will be warmly welcomed by members of the Kent Geologists' Group (KGG) and the Medway Fossil and Mineral Society (MFMS) as Anne is an active member of both.

Though fossil collecting is the primary interest in the two groups Anne has, on several occasions, given interesting and informative talks on mineral and general geology topics to satisfy minority interests.

It is therefore a pleasure to announce that the November 2008 talk 'How to make Calcite' will be given by Dr. Anne Padfield.