Patrick Makuluni

Postdoctoral Fellow in Geophysics

I am a Geophysicist, Geologist and Civil Engineer working on employing a Bayesian perspective to enhance the understanding of the dynamic evolution of sedimentary basins. My current work aims to quantify the uncertainties in inferred dynamic models to solve the underlying geo-data inference problems. My research goals are to develop accurate dynamic basin evolution models for sedimentary settings with igneous intrusions to improve the understanding of the dynamic sediment-magma interactions. The findings of this work will be crucial for understanding the evolution and distribution of sediment-hosted mineral systems and provide valuable insights for resource exploration targeting. Throughout my research career, I have created geodynamic basin evolution models to assess the mineral and hydrocarbon resource potential of sedimentary basins in Australia.

Technical skills

  •  Geodynamic modelling and kinematic reconstruction of sedimentary basins
  • Geological modelling, geostatistics, GIS, and programming (Python and R)
  • Field geology techniques, 3D structural geology analysis
  • Advanced skills in geochemistry and geochronology, mineral systems analysis, and resource estimation.

Professional experience

March 2022 – Present
CERC Postdoctoral Fellow: CSIRO Deep Earth Imaging Future Science Platform

2018 – Feb 2022
Casual Academic: UNSW _Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering

Education

(PhD) Mineral and Energy Resources Engineering UNSW Sydney -Pending (2022)

(MSc) Geology Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology Curtin University (2017)

(BSc) Civil Engineering, University of Malawi, The Polytechnic, Malawi (2012)

Selected publications

  1. Makuluni, P., Kirkland, C. L., & Barham, M. (2019). Zircon grain shape holds provenance information: A case study from southwestern Australia. Geological Journal, 54(3), 1279–1293. https://doi.org/10.1002/gj.3225
  2. Makuluni, P., Johnson, L. M., Hauser, J., Langhi, L., & Clark, S. (2021). Quantifying exhumation using compaction and vitrinite reflectance in the Southern Bonaparte Basin, North West Shelf, Australia. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 134, 105318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2021.105318
  3. Makuluni, P., Hauser, J., & Clark, S. (2022). Tilting of the Australian continent: New evidence from the subsidence and deposition history of the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 137, 105483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2021.105483
  4. Makuluni, P., Clark, S., & Hauser, J. (2019). The Impact and Causes of Subsidence in the Exmouth Sub-basin, Northern Carnarvon Basin. ASEG Extended Abstracts, 2019(1), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/22020586.2019.12073035
  5. Alzubaidi, F., Makuluni, P., Clark, S. R., Lie, J. E., Mostaghimi, P., & Armstrong, R. T. (2022). Automatic fracture detection and characterization from unwrapped drill-core images using mask R–CNN. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 208, 109471. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109471
  6. Banks, E. W., Cook, P. G., Owor, M., Okullo, J., Kebede, S., Nedaw, D., Mleta, P., Fallas, H., Gooddy, D., John MacAllister, D., Mkandawire, T., Makuluni, P., Shaba, C. E., & MacDonald, A. M. (2021). Environmental tracers to evaluate groundwater residence times and water quality risk in shallow unconfined aquifers in sub Saharan Africa. Journal of Hydrology, 598, 125753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125753
  7. MacAllister, D. J., MacDonald, A., Kebede, S., Azagegn, T., Nedaw, D., Owor, M., Okullo, J., Mkandawire, T., Shaba, C., Makuluni, P., Bell, R., & Fallas, H. (2021). Functionality and resilience of hand-pumped boreholes in sub-Saharan Africa. Water & Health Conference: Research, Policy and Practice, Online. https://www.unwater.org/water-and-health-conference-hosted-online-4-8-october-2021/