About me
Academic
Currently, I am an MPhil student at the University of Edinburgh. My research project here encompasses the use of topographic analysis to reveal the progressive evolution of the mountain building process in the Himalayas. I also use the Optical Luminescence dating to date the deposition time of sediment and infer the topographic growth. On my fieldwork in Nepal Himalaya, I measured the distribution of pebbles lithology, paleoflow direction, and sedimentology log of a fluvial deposit to help me constraint the river network evolution in ‘Chitwan Dun’, an intermontane basin in the frontal Himalaya.
I obtained my undergraduate degree from Universitas Padjadjaran in geological engineering. For my final undergraduate project, I did something similar (but not the same) to what I do now. Hopefully, I can continue my postgraduate journey to a PhD.
The Land Surface Dynamics group of the University of Edinburgh
Lyfe
I am from Bandung, West Java, Indonesia which is famous for various reasons such as tourism (this city is surrounded by many volcanoes and therefore the mean elevation is ~800 metres with an average temperature of 20-23°C, which is a perfect cast away from the populous and hot (~36°C) Jakarta), nature, food (there is a rumour that the street food in Bandung is the best in Indonesia), the Mayor (now he is the Governor), education, and beautiful ladies (apparently according to other cities citizens, yup, I mean it).
Bandung also has its very own fault, called the ‘Lembang fault’, which is always ready to give the people of Bandung a bit of quake at anytime. The nearest volcano is Tangkuban Perahu (literally means upturned boat, and if you can see the volcano from Bandung city, you can tell why) which is right to the north of the fault. There is mythology related to the existence of the volcano for the local people called Sangkuriang, which tells the story of the origin of the volcano, as well as the mitigation aspect if the volcano erupts.
A picture of Bandung city as seen from Balubur with the upturned boat volcano as a background (the right hand side mountain)
After I graduated with my undergraduate degree, I went to Jakarta to work as a hydrogeologist for a couple of years. Then I moved to Edinburgh in 2019 for my postgraduate journey. As a result, I think 20°C is ‘too hot’, and now I am afraid of how am I going to cope with the temperature when I come home.
A picture of Edinburgh’s old town (including the Waverley station) as seen from Jacob’s Ladder
Some of the activities that I do
From front-to-back, there are Me, Emma, Mark, Mikael and a Baba who rows the boat. Hugh (my supervisor) sat in the front row.
In this picture, we were crossing the East Rapti river to collect the precious sand samples in the Churia range, a young, elongated hill, built by the collision between the Indian and Asian tectonic plates! The fact that Churia range is a wildlife conservation park is always thrilled me for having fieldwork in ‘Chitwan National Park’. There, we met a rhino, ridiculously beautiful birds, crocodiles and probably stalked by a tiger(s)?! We became leeches’ (not lychees) lunch too!