Dr Richard Lilly

Dr Richard Lilly is the NExUS Program Leader at the University of Adelaide as well as Senior Advisor of Tertiary Engagement and Projects at OZ Minerals. He bridges the gap between the mining industry and universities, and leverages his extensive experience in exploration geology to help create industry-ready geoscience graduates through research projects and extra-curricular courses, workshops, outreach and events.

Richard’s National Exploration Under cover School (NExUS) is an Australian-first, and gives students and early career earth scientists across many disciplines the tools they need to succeed in exploration, as well as strengthening the networks between early career scientists across Australia.

What do you do?

I coordinate and run the National Exploration Undercover School (NExUS) at the University of Adelaide. NExUS started as a 3-week summer school for geoscientists interested in exploration in 2016. The program has been successful and has grown to include workshops, school outreach and many other activities. I also coordinate and conduct research into ore deposits. Additionally, this year I spend two days a week working with OZ Minerals helping them to coordinate their research projects and engagement with universities. My job involves a lot of communication, organisation, and looking at/talking about rocks.

Why did you choose this career pathway?

I didn’t plan for my career to go the way it has at all. If you’d asked me 10 years ago I would never have thought that I’d be doing what I do now (and the same 10 years before that). I’ve always tried to take opportunities as they come up, and being conscious as to whether I am doing a job that I enjoy.

What are the best parts about your job?
What are the hardest parts?

I’ve always enjoyed travelling, and was able to visit and work in many different countries during my early years as a geoscientist, and my work led directly to me moving to Australia from the UK with my family. I also enjoy meeting and working with a diverse group of people whom you meet in the exploration and mining industry. In recent years, I have found that I really enjoy teaching and helping students and early career geoscientists get started in their careers. I still enjoy getting paid to look at cool mineralised rocks from around the world.

When my children were younger, it was hard going away on field work for extended periods, but living in Mount Isa meant I could get home most nights (one of the benefits of residential roles for families). The hardest part of my current job is fitting everything in!

How did you get to your current role?

As a kid, I was always interested in rocks and the natural world, so studying physical geography and geology was an extension of that interest. While I was studying in my 1st year at university (Cardiff, UK) a former student visited and gave a talk about working in gold exploration in the Australian outback. I was like ‘you can get paid to travel and look for cool rocks?’ From then on I was driven to become an exploration geologist. However, when I graduated, there was a downturn in the industry (no jobs), so I ended up doing a PhD so that I could keep looking at rocks.

By the time I finished there were lots of jobs again, so my wife and I emigrated to Australia (Mount Isa, Qld) and I got to do my dream job of exploration. After a couple of years, I realised that we didn’t know enough about the geology of what we were exploring for, so I started working with universities to get students to come and complete research projects. That re-ignited my interest in research so a few years later I made the shift to come back to university. Having a lot of industry experience is unusual for lecturers, so I tried to incorporate many of my own experiences into teaching, which led indirectly to the founding of the NExUS program. I never expected to be so involved with education, and still consider myself to be an exploration geologist who just happens to work at a university. My role with OZ Minerals builds on my experience of bridging the gap between industry and academia, which I think is only going to become more important in the future.

What are the major challenges in your field?

There is a growing skills shortage in the mining industry. We are going to need so many more geologists, engineers, environmental officers, programmers, data analysts, etc. over the next 10-20+ years that companies and universities really need to be out there letting everyone know how important these STEM roles are to our evolving society.

What might your career progression look like from here?

The older I get, the less career oriented I have become: I’ve been fortunate to have achieved the career aims I had 20 years ago, which were to get paid to travel and look at cool rocks.

Money and status have never been drivers for my career aims, and these days I try to make decisions so that I can spend as much time as I can with my family. I never expected to be working at a university for so long, so I expect I’ll eventually grow a grey beard and work more as a consultant. My wife and I still really like the idea of living and working in other countries, so when my kids are older and off on their own life adventures, I might try to start a NExUS-like program in Africa, or another part of the world.

What advice would you give to students in your study area trying to decide on a career path?

Try not to put too much pressure on yourself; opportunities come up all the time and just try to enjoy them; ‘Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans’. I would advise to try and get a taste of a range of different jobs so that you can work out what you like the best and then go for it! There is so much more to building a career than what you learn at Uni, and it will often take you in directions you don’t expect. Also; be nice to people!

What were your career worries and expectations when you were at uni?

I feel quite fortunate that I identified fairly early on that I wanted to be an exploration geologist. It took nearly ten years to finally make that a reality, but I always had that goal in my mind. I think that my parents were more worried about my career than I was!

Then, after about 7 years being an exploration geologist I thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool to go back to Uni’ and study the rocks I’d been exploring, so I worked hard to make that happen.

A couple of years ago at the Uni I thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool to run workshops and teach people the important industry stuff that Uni doesn’t always teach you’, and that is essentially what I’m doing now. I’ve always tried to have a goal in mind and work to make it happen.

Anything else you’d like people to know about your job?

I probably spend more time these days sending emails than I do looking at rocks. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not…..

NExUS has a fledgling YouTube channel with geology outreach videos. I’d like it if we were able to let more teachers know about the videos - check them out here!