Courses
Please find all information on the 14th ICCP Course on Organic Petrology, Patras, Greece – in this page: https://www.iccop.org/14th-iccp-course-on-organic-petrology
1. Introduction
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with the Department of Geology, University of Patras, is pleased to announce a training course in general organic petrology to be held in Patras, Greece, between 24-28th October 2022.
The course is designed for professionals and students, and is not exclusively targeting organic petrologists but also those, who rather deal with petrographic data.
Due to the sudden loss of Dr. Walter Pickel, the Instructors will be Dr Angeles G. Borrego and Dr Stavros Kalaitzidis, with the participation of Dr. Nikki Wagner.
2. Course outline
The course will be held daily (24-27th October) from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., with breaks for morning and afternoon coffee/tea and lunch.
The following items will be covered in the course:
Theory:
Coal and other organic sediments genesis (geology, petrology and geochemistry), composition, type, rank/maturity and rank parameters.
Petrographic analyses: fundamentals of the optical microscope and sample preparation, maceral and microlithotype analyses, vitrinite reflectance analysis and the use of fluorescence mode.
Basic factors controlling quality and technological behaviour of coal, oil shales, source rocks.
Overview of industrial and environmental applications of organic petrology.
Practical:
Practical exercises constitute a significant part of the course. They include macroscopic and microscopic characterisation of components of fossil and modern particulate organic matter, their quantification and the assessment and the interpretation of data.
The exercise will be held on microscopic identification of fossil organic matter components, point-counting analysis, reflectance analysis, the use of fluorescence mode on various samples of different type and rank/maturity and grade. For this purpose, images of pre-scanned samples on screen with the group or on the participant’s individual laptops will be used – Windows only. Analysis software will be provided to the participants.
A practical session on the use of an incident light microscope will be held with at a research microscope.
Field Trip: A one-day field trip is scheduled for Friday, 28th October to visit the active mire of Keri on Zakynthos Island. More details will follow after registration.
3. Registration and fees
Costs for the course include course notes, lunches and coffee-breaks. Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals other than during the course. The number of participants is limited to 20.
Registration is now available.
Due date for registration and payment is August 30th, 2022. A detailed outline of the course will be available on the website closer to the course.
Company / Professional | 1300 € |
Government / Non-Profit | 750 € |
Student | 250 € |
Pay either by Bank Transfer to:
Bank Name: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Address: 48 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Account Name: International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology
BSB: 064107
Account Number: 10409339
Swift Code: CTBAAU2S
Reference: your surname and 14th ICCP Course.
Or Contact ICCP’s Treasurer Dr. Joan Esterle at j.esterle@uq.edu.au for Credit card payments.
Receipt will be sent upon payment.
4. Accommodation
Participants will have to arrange their own accommodation. However, the organizers arranged special prices with the following Hotels:
- Castello Hotel (https://www.castellohotel.gr/) in walking distance to the Venue (single 59 Euros, double 75 Euros plus 1.5 Euros Tax; please quote code ICCP).
- Astir Hotel (http://www.hotelastirpatras.gr/patras-hotel/index.html), in city center (single 55 Euros, double 58 Euros, Triple 78 Euros, plus 3.0 Euros Tax; please quote code ICCP).
- Moxy Patra Marina (https://moxy-hotels.marriott.com/; reservations@moxypatra.com), in city center (please quote code ICCP Course).
For any assistance please contact Dr. Stavros Kalaitzidis (skalait@upatras.gr)
5. Venue
Conference and Cultural Centre, University of Patras
University Campus, Rio-Patras
Please note the University Campus is located about 7 km from the city center.
There are regular buses, and the cost of a taxi is about 8 Euros one way (about 15-20 min drive).
6. Trainers
Dr. Stavros Kalaitzidis
Stavros Kalaitzidis received his Ph.D. degree in the scientific field of “Peatlands and Peatification Processes” from the Department of Geology, University of Patras, Greece, in 2007. As postgraduate student he worked in several research programmes at the University of Patras in collaboration with Universities and Institutions in Germany, UK, and The Netherlands, but also for the Greek Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME), and the Institute for Solid Fuels Technology and Applications (ISFTA) in Athens. From 2008 to 2014 he served in various positions in the Australian mining industry, initially in the exploration and mining sectors of BHP Billiton, and later as Senior Geologist at Integral Resource Consulting Ltd. based in Brisbane, Queensland. Currently he holds an Associate Professor position in the field of Economic Geology at the University of Patras. He is a member of the ICCP since 1999.
Dr. Angeles Borrego
Angeles G. Borrego is Scientific Researcher at the Instituto Nacional del Carbón (INCAR-CSIC) in Oviedo, Spain. She got the PhD from the University of Oviedo in Spain in 1992 after having performed short stays at the NRG on fossil fuels and environmental geochemistry in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), and the University of Bergen (Norway). She worked for nearly three years at the Lehrstuhl from Erdöl und Kohle (RWTH Aachen), Germany with a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship. Her research has mainly focused on the study of oil shale and source rocks with special emphasis in the relationships between organic petrology and geochemistry, the petrographic characteristics of chars and the behavior of macerals upon pyrolysis, and more recently on peat as record of palaeo-environmental variability. This research has been carried out within the framework of national and international projects and has yielded over 60 papers in peer reviewed journals. Angeles gives some classes at the University of Oviedo and has taught compact organic petrology courses for coal and oil companies and at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil), Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (Sogamoso) and Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila (Mexico) in addition to the ICCP course on dispersed organic matter in 2014 and 2016.
Dr. Nikki Wagner
Prof Nikki (Nicola) Wagner is the Director of the NRF-DSI Centre of Excellence in Integrated Mineral and Energy Resource Analysis (CIMERA) and Professor in the Geology Department at the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. Her research areas include the coal and carbon value-chain, with specialisation in organic petrology and coal geology. She completed her Phd in 1998 (Wits), and shortly thereafter worked for Sasol in their Coal to Syngas Research Group, as the inhouse coal petrographer. Prof Wagner joined the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 2006, where she ran the Coal Research group for 8 years before moving back to geology and joined the University of Johannesburg in 2014. Prof Wagner has over 60 peer reviewed publications and has graduated over 40 postgraduate students. She is accredited by the International Committee for Organic Petrology (ICCP), and is the elected editor of the ICCP News, where she also serves on the Council.
Further Information
Please contact Dr. João Graciano Mendonça Filho at graciano@geologia.ufrj.br
or
Stavros Kalaitzidis at skalait@upatras.gr
1. Introduction
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with DGGV (Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft – Geologische Vereiningung e.V.), the Teichmüller Foundation and GFZ (the German Research Centre for Geosciences), is pleased to announce a training course in general organic petrology to be held in Potsdam between 25-29th May 2020.
The course is designed for professionals and students, and is not exclusively targeting organic petrologists but also those, who use petrographic data rather.
Instructors will be Dr Walter Pickel and Dr Stavros Kalaitzidis.
2. Course outline
The course will be held daily from 09:00 a.m. until 05:00 p.m., with breaks for morning and afternoon coffee/tea and lunch.
The following items will be covered in the course:
Theory:
Coal and other fossil organic matter genesis (geology, petrology and geochemistry), composition, type, rank/maturity and rank parameters.
Petrographic analyses: fundamentals of the optical microscope and sample preparation, maceral and microlithotype analyses, vitrinite reflectance analysis and the use of fluorescence.
Basic factors controlling quality and technological behaviour of coal, oil shales, source rocks.
Overview of industrial and environmental applications of organic petrology.
Practical:
Practical exercises form a significant part of the course. They include macroscopic and microscopic characterisation of components of fossil particulate organic matter, their quantification and the assessment and the interpretation of data.
Microscopic identification of fossil organic matter components, point-counting analysis, reflectance analysis, the use of fluorescence on various samples of different type and rank/maturity and grade will be exercised on images of pre-scanned samples on screen with the group or on the participant’s laptops – Windows only. Analysis software will be provided to the participants).
A practical session on the use of a reflected light microscope will be held with at a research microscope.
3. Registration and fees
Costs for the course include course notes, lunches and coffee-breaks. Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals other than during the course. The number of participants is limited to 20.
Registration is now available.
Due date for registration and payment is April 30th, 2020. A detailed outline of the course will be available on the website closer to the course.
Company / Professional | 1300 € |
Government / Non-Profit | 750 € |
Student | 250 € |
Pay either by Bank Transfer to:
Bank Name: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Address: 48 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Account Name: International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology
BSB: 064107
Account Number: 10409339
Swift Code: CTBAAU2S
Reference: your surname and 14th ICCP Course.
Or Contact ICCP’s Treasurer Dr. Peter Corsdale at peter.crosdale@energyrc.com.au for Credit card payments.
Receipt will be sent upon payment.
4. Accommodation
Participants must make their own accommodation reservations directly.
For accommodation in Potsdam please visit:
https://www.potsdam.de/kategorie/hotels
If you need further information please contact: Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de
5. Venue
Geoforschungszentrum (GFZ – The German Geoscience Research Center) Potsdam.
6. Trainers
Dr. Walter Pickel
Walter Pickel received his PhD from the Rheinish Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany in 1991.He taught and worked at RWTH from 1987 until 1998. Afterwards he joined CSIRO Petroleum in Sydney, Australia as a senior research scientist. In 2003 he joined Harold Read & Associates and co-founded Coal & Organic Petrology Services P/L in Sydney in 2004, a company of which he was the managing director. He is now the owner and director of this company, trading as Organic Petrology Services P/L. His company applies organic petrology to conventional and unconventional gas exploration, petroleum exploration, metallurgical coal exploration and quality assessment, fossil fuel contamination in environmental samples.
Apart from teaching at Aachen University, he has been giving classes and workshops at Cologne University, in Chile, Indonesia, Iran and Australia.He is author/co-author of some 80 reviewed papers and abstracts. He is a member of the ICCP since 1991.
Dr. Stavros Kalaitzidis
Stavros Kalaitzidis received his Ph.D. degree in the scientific field of “Peatlands and Peatification Processes” from the Department of Geology, University of Patras, Greece, in 2007. As postgraduate student he worked in several research programmes at the University of Patras in collaboration with Universities and Institutions in Germany, UK, and The Netherlands, but also for the Greek Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (IGME), and the Institute for Solid Fuels Technology and Applications (ISFTA) in Athens. From 2008 to 2014 he served in various positions in the Australian mining industry, initially in the exploration and mining sectors of BHP Billiton, and later as Senior Geologist at Integral Resource Consulting Ltd. based in Brisbane, Queensland. Currently he holds an Assistant Professor position in the field of Economic Geology at the University of Patras. He is a member of the ICCP since 1999.
Further Information
Please contact Dr. João Graciano Mendonça Filho at graciano@geologia.ufrj.br
or Dr. Walter Pickel at walter.pickel@organicpetrology.com
1. Introduction
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with DGGV (Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft – Geologische Vereiningung e.V.), the Teichmüller Foundation and GFZ (the German Research Centre for Geosciences), is pleased to announce a training course in Organic Petrology and its Applications to be held in Potsdam, July 15th – 19th, 2019.
The course will focus on the petrology of fossil organic matter with a particular emphasis on a wider range of coals and dispersed organic matter in the fossil record and as pollutants in the environment. Practical applications and technological importance will be stressed.
While a basic geological understanding of the participants will be assumed, the course is designed for those with little or no knowledge of fossil organic matter. It is therefore suitable for undergraduate or post graduate students, as well as established professionals who require a more thorough understanding of petrological aspects of coals another fossil organic matter or the interpretation of data thereof.
2. Course outline
Theory:
Coal and other fossil organic matter genesis (geology, petrology and geochemistry), composition, type, rank and rank parameters.
Petrographic analyses: fundamentals of the optical microscope and sample preparation, maceral and microlithotype analyses, vitrinite reflectance analysis and the use of fluorescence.
Basic factors controlling quality and technological behaviour of coal. Industrial and environmental applications of organic petrology.
Practical:
The use of the reflected light microscope, identification of fossil organic matter components, point-counting analysis, reflectance measurements, use of fluorescence (all by pre scanned analyses on a screen with the group or on the participant’s laptops –Windows only, sorry). Analysis software will be provided to the participants with examples of various samples of different type, rank and grade.
3. Trainers
Dr. Walter Pickel, Organic Petrology Services P/L, Sydney, Australia
Dr. Isabel Suárez Ruiz, INCAR-CSIC, Oviedo, Spain
4. Registration and fees
Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals except where stated below. Costs include course notes, lunches and coffee-breaks. Number of participants is limited to 20 persons and will be on a first come basis.
Registration is now available.
Due date for registration and payment is July 1st, 2019. A detailed outline of the course will be available on the website closer to the course.
Company / Professional | 1300 € |
Government / Non-Profit | 750 € |
Student | 250 € |
Pay either by Bank Transfer to:
Bank Name: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Address: 48 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Account Name: International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology
BSB: 064107
Account Number: 10409339
Swift Code: CTBAAU2S
Reference: your surname and 13th ICCP Course.
Or Contact ICCP’s Treasurer Dr. Peter Corsdale at peter.crosdale@energyrc.com.au for Credit card payments.
Receipt will be sent upon payment.
Further Information
Please contact Dr. João Graciano Mendonça Filho at graciano@geologia.ufrj.br
or Dr. Walter Pickel at walter.pickel@organicpetrology.com
1. Introduction
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with Geolab, DGGV (Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft – Geologische Vereiningung e.V.), the Teichmüller Foundation and GFZ (the German Research Centre for Geosciences), is pleased to announce a training course in organic petrology to be held in Potsdam between 6-10th June 2016.
The course is centred on the petrology of coals with a particular emphasis on extending familiarity with a wider range of coals and dispersed organic matter. Practical applications and technological importance will be stressed.
While a basic geological understanding will be assumed, the course is designed for those with little or no knowledge of coal. It is therefore suitable for under-graduate or post graduate students as well as established professionals who require a more thorough understanding of petrological aspects of coals.
A Certificate of participation will be awarded to each person completing this course, but this does not include accreditation from the ICCP. Information for the ICCP Accreditation Program can be found at Accreditation.
2. Registration and fees
Registration includes tuition. Costs include course notes, lunches and coffee and farewell function. Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals except where stated. Printed notes will be available for the courses. Powerpoint presentations will be used for the lectures. Course notes will be distributed to each participant and a CD of the notes and Powerpoint presentations will be available.
Company / Professional | 1300 € |
Government / Non-Profit | 700 € |
Student | 250 € |
Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals except where stated. Costs include course notes, lunches and coffee, and course dinner.
Course language is English
Space is limited and will be on a first come basis. A detailed course outline will become available soon at www.iccop.org.
Further information is available from:
Peter Crosdale at peter.crosdale@energyrc.com.au
3. Payments
Payment should be settled at the latest on 15 May, 2016. After registration in the course you will receive, from our Treasurer Mrs. Jennifer Pearson, a proforma invoice with the amount due and all details of bank account for bank transfer and/or for payment with credit card (only VISA and MASTERCARD).
4. Accommodation
Participants must make their own accommodation reservations directly.
For hotels in Potsdam please visit:
https://www.potsdam.de/kategorie/hotels If you need further information please contact: Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de
5. Venue
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam, Germany
The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has a good connection to the railway service and to the international airports of Berlin. From Berlin there is an easy access by public transport. From the Potsdam-Hauptbahnhof you can walk in 15 Minutes to the Campus “Albert Einstein”. A detailed location plan is available from the GFZ-website: http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/en/centre/about-us/directions-and-locations/
The GeoLab is situated in Building A27, Big Refractor (Großer Refraktor),
a campus plan is also available from the GFZ-website: https://media.gfz-potsdam.de/gfz/wv/doc/CMS/15/Campusplan.pdf
6. Course outline
The course will meet daily from 9:00 am until 6:00pm, with breaks for morning and afternoon tea, and lunch.
Theory: Coal genesis (geology and geochemistry), Coal Composition and type: Lithotypes, Macerals and Microlithotypes Coal rank and rank parameters. Petrographic analyses: fundamentals of the optical microscope and sample preparation, maceral and microlithotype analyses, vitrinite reflectance analysis and the use of fluorescence. Basic factors controlling quality and technological behaviour of coal. Industrial applications of organic petrology.
Practical:
Practical session on petrographic techniques: The use of the reflected light microscope, identification of coal components, point-counting analysis, reflectance measurements, fluorescence analysis (all by pre scanned analyses on a screen with the group) on coals of different type and rank and grade. Preparation of participants for ICCP accreditation programs on coal analysis. It would be possible to examine your own coal samples.
Practical session facilities will be provided by Hilgers Technisches Büro, using a microscope with FOSSIL software for reflectance measuement, documentation and training.
7. Trainers

Walter Pickel
Walter Pickel received his PhD from the Rheinish Westfaelische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany in 1991.
He taught and worked at RWTH until 1998. He joined CSIRO Petroleum in Sydney, Australia as a senior research scientist in 1999. In 2003 he joined Harold Read & Associates and co-founded Coal & Organic Petrology Services P/L in Sydney in 2004, a company of which he is the managing director.
Apart from teaching at Aachen University, he has been giving classes and workshops at Cologne University, in Chile, Indonesia and Australia and has taught various ICCP courses on general organic petrology and on industrial applications of organic petrology. He was appointed visiting professor at the Instituto de Geologia Economica Aplicada –GEA at the University of Concepcion, Chile in 2000.
He is author/co-author of some 80 reviewed papers and abstracts. He is a member of the ICCP since 1991 where he convenes various working groups and got the Thiessen Medal Award in 2015 for the achievements in the field of organic petrology.

Angeles Borrego
Angeles Borrego
Angeles G. Borrego is Scientific Researcher at the Instituto Nacional del Carbón (INCAR-CSIC) in Oviedo, Spain. She got the PhD from the University of Oviedo in Spain in 1992 after having performed short stays at the NRG on fossil fuels and environmental geochemistry in Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), and the University of Bergen (Norway). She worked for nearly three years at the Lehrstuhl from Erdöl und Kohle (RWTH Aachen), Germany with a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship. Her research has mainly focused on the study of oil shale and source rocks with special emphasis in the relationships between organic petrology and geochemistry, the petrographic characteristics of chars and the behavior of macerals upon pyrolysis, and more recently on peat as record of palaeo-environmental variability. This research has been carried out within the framework of national and international projects and has yielded over 60 papers in peer reviewed journals. Angeles gives some classes at the University of Oviedo and has taught compact organic petrology courses for coal and oil companies and at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil), Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (Sogamoso) and Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila (Mexico) in addition to the ICCP course on dispersed organic matter in 2014.
Practical session on petrographic techniques: The use of the reflected light microscope, identification of coal components, point-counting analysis, reflectance measurements and fluorescence analysis (all by pre-scanned analyses on a screen with the group) will be applied on coals of different type and rank, coal blends and related organic substances. Practical session facilities will be provided by Hilgers Technisches Büro using a microscope with FOSSIL software for reflectance measurement, documentation and training.
8. Disability-related needs
If you plan to attend the course and you have disability-related needs, please contact Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de
The ICCP Training Course on Organic Petrology for Industrial Applications was held successfully at the Geolab in the Great Refractor Building on Telegraphenberg in Potsdam.
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with Geolab, DGGV, Teichmüller Foundation and GFZ (the German Research Centre for Geosciences), organised this training course, which was centred on the petrology of a wide variety of coals. Practical applications and technological importance were stressed. While a basic geological understanding was assumed, the course was designed for those with little or no knowledge of coal. It was therefore suitable for undergraduate or post graduate students as well as established professionals who require a more thorough understanding of petrological aspects of coals.
General Outline Theory:
- Genesis (geology and geochemistry)
- Coal Coal Composition: Lithotypes, Macerals and Microlithotypes
- Coal rank and rank parameters.
- Petrographic analyses: maceral and microlithotype analyses, vitrinite reflectance analysis and the use of fluorescence.
- Basic factors controlling quality and technological behavior of coal.
Organic petrology applied to:
- Coal Mining and beneficiation
- Coal carbonization
- Coal combustion and co-combustion
- Coal gasification
- Coal liquefaction
- Coal derived carbon materials
- Environmental issues
Practical session on petrographic techniques: The use of the reflected light microscope, identification of coal components, point-counting analysis, reflectance measurements, fluorescence analysis (all by pre scanned analyses on a screen with the group) on coals of different type and rank, coal blends, residues from coal utilization…. Practical session facilities will be provided by Hilgers Technisches Büro, using a microscope with FOSSIL software for reflectance measuement, documentation and training.
Presenters Isabel Suárez-Ruiz, Spain & Walter Pickel, Australia

Isabel Suarez-Ruiz
Isabel Suárez Ruiz is a geologist and a scientific researcher at the Instituto Nacional del Carbon (INCAR-CSIC, Spain) working in the field of fundamental and applied organic petrology. She received her PhD in 1988 from the University of Oviedo (Spain) for her doctoral thesis in oil shales and source rocks. She has spent extensive periods of time carrying out research in petrology and organic geochemistry on rocks containing dispersed organic matter, coals, and solid residues from coal utilization, in well-known laboratories in France (Orléans, post-doctoral studies) and in United States (Carbondale in Illinois, as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Geology; and Lexington in Kentucky as Visiting Scientist). She also spent shorter periods of time in the Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo (Mexico DF in Mexico) and in the Instituto Colombiano del Petroleo, ICP-ECOPETROL (Bucaramanga in Colombia) working in organic petrology applied to conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon systems exploration. Moreover, she also developed multiple international collaborations with USA, France, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, and national with Oviedo, Salamanca, Barcelona, Huelva, Almeria, Bilbao, San Sebastian, Sevilla Universities and Research Institutions in Spain. Nowadays, she is the manager of the Organic Petrography Laboratory at the INCAR-CSIC, she is also member of Scientific International Committees, Chair of the Commission III of the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP) and she was Vice-president and President of The Society of Organic Petrology (TSOP). She is author and co-author of a significant number of papers (about one hundred), book chapters, a book and two ATLAS always focused on topics of coal and organic petrology. In the last years she has received several international Awards recognizing her scientific and research work and contributions to the science).

Walter Pickel
Walter Pickel received his PhD from the Rheinish Westfaelische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany in 1991. He taught and worked at RWTH until 1998. Afterwards he joined CSIRO Petroleum in Sydney, Australia as a senior research scientist. In 2003 he joined Harold Read & Associates and co-founded Coal & Organic Petrology Services P/L in Sydney in 2004, a company of which he is the managing director. Apart from teaching at Aachen University, he has been giving classes and workshops at Cologne University, in Chile, Indonesia and Australia. He was appointed visiting professor at the Instituto de Geologia Economica Aplicada –GEA at the University of Concepcion, Chile in 2000. He is author/co-author of some 80 reviewed papers and abstracts. He is a member of the ICCP since 1991.
Costs
Company/Professional € 1300
Government/non-profit € 700
Student € 250
Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals except where stated. Costs include course notes, lunches and coffee, and course dinner.
Course language is English. Space is limited and will be on a first come basis. A detailed course outline will become available in June 2015. If you want to register for the course, please use the online registration from. After registration, you will receive a confirmation and an invoice from the ICCP treasurer Jen Pearson.
For technical information, please contact the ICCP Vice President Peter Crosdale at peter.crosdale@energyrc.com.au, for logistical information, please contact Ms. Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de.
Venue
The training is given at Building A27/ Big Refractor, Geolab at the Telegraphenberg in Potsdam
Accomodation
Please book the hotel of your choice in time, because September is a busy months in Potsdam.
Mercure Hotel
This hotel is closest to the train station and the meeting venue.
Please make your own reservations.
Prices: Room incl. breakfast: ca. 100-120 €
Lange Brücke 1 14467 Potsdam,
Germany Tel.: + 49 331 27 22
Fax: + 49 331 27 20 233
E-mail: Michael.Ebert@mercure-hotel-potsdam.de Hotel website
Steigenberger Hotel Sanssouci
The Steigenberger Hotel Sanssouci is situated just 500 metres from the famous summer residence “Castle Sanssouci” of Frederick the Great and its lovely park grounds.
Find more information at the hotel website. Prices: € 100-150.
There are several other hotels in Potsdam in all price ranges. Please check the internet.
Field Trip
A field trip will be organised to the East German Lignite Mines on Saturday, 5 September 2015 together with participants of the 67th ICCP meeting. The field trip will visit the open cast mine Welzow Süd and the power station ‘Schwarze Pumpe’. The costs for the field trip are € 80. Costs include travel, field trip guide, lunch and beverages. Please indicate on the registration form if you wish to participate in the field trip.
ICCP Training Course in Dispersed Organic Matter
23-27 June, 2014, Potsdam, Germany
The International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), in conjunction with Geolab, DGG (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften), the Teichmüller Foundation and GFZ (the German Research Centre for Geosciences), is pleased to announce a five-day training course in Dispersed Organic Matter to be held in Postdam in June 2014.
Instructors will be Prof. Joao Graciano Mendonca Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Dr. Angeles G. Borrego, Instituto Nacional del Carbón, CSIC, Oviedo, Spain. A Textbook and Powerpoint presentations will be available for the participants.
The ICCP Training Course in Dispersed Organic Matter is aimed at researchers, postgraduate students, geologists and other professionals working in the field of oil and gas exploration. The maximum number of participants is 20.
A Certificate of participation will be awarded to each person completing this course.
1. Program and Schedule (tentative)
The following items will be covered in the course:
1. Dispersed Organic Matter (DOM): Concepts and definitions
- OM production, processes and sedimentation
- OM evolution and chemical composition of biomass
2. Transmitted light microscopy techniques (white and blue lights)
- Sample preparation
- Classification of OM
- Maturation: SCI-Spore Colour Index; spectral fluorescence parameters
- Applications: organic petrography, palynology and palynofacies
- Organic facies
3. Reflected light microscopy techniques (white and blue light)
- Sample preparation and Standardization
- Petrography of OM: Nomenclature and applications
- Maturation: huminite/vitrinite reflectance and spectral fluorescence
4. Case studies
5. Practical sessions
A Detailed Schedule can be downloaded.
Emphasis will be given to practical exercises
Practical session facilities will be provided by Hilgers Technisches Büro, using a microscope coupled to an image projector equipped with FOSSIL software for reflectance measurement, documentation and training.
2. Registration Fees
Fees for the course include course materials (Textbook and Powerpoint Presentations), coffee-breaks and lunches. The price for the course as follows:
Company / Professional: 1300 €
Government / non-profit: 700 €
Students: 250 €
Those interested in participating in this course should send the ICCP-2014-registration-form to Mrs. Antje Treutler at treutler_(at)_gfz-potsdam.de .
3. Payments
Payment has to be settled before the start of the course. After registration participants will receive a proforma invoice with the amount due and all bank account details for bank transfer and/or for payment with credit card (only VISA and MASTERCARD) from the ICCP Treasurer Mrs. Jennifer Pearson.
4. Registration
The registration form can be downloaded from:
5. Venue
The course will be held at the GeoLab at the
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam, Germany
The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has a good connection to the railway service and to the international airports of Berlin. From Berlin there is an easy access by public transport. From the Potsdam-Hauptbahnhof you can walk in 15 Minutes to the Campus Albert Einstein. A detailed location plan is available from the GFZ-website.
The GeoLab is situated in Building A27, Big Refractor (Grosser Refraktor),
a campus plan is also available from the GFZ-website.
6. Accommodation
Participants should book their own accomodation.
A special arrangement have been made with:
Lange Brücke
14467 Potsdam –
Tel.: +49 (0)331/ 272-2
Fax: +49 (0)331 / 293-496
E-mail: h1582@accor.com
Costs: Single room: 74 € incl. breakfast, Double room: 89 € incl. breakfast
Please refer to special rate ‘ICCP Training’.The special rate is valid until: 26.05.2014
More hotels in Potsdam can be found at: Hotels in Potsdam
1. Introduction
A new one week training program in organic petrology will be held in GFZ’s GeoLab in Potsdam (Germany) in June, 2013. The event is a joint venture, initiated and endorsed by the International Committee for Coal and Organic Petrology (ICCP), German Geological Society (DGG), German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), and the Rolf & Marlies Teichmüller Foundation.
The course will be centred on the petrology of coals with a particular emphasis on their petrography. It is held by outstanding and reknowned experts in the field. Practical instruction and technological importance will be stressed. Download the 2nd Announcement
While a basic geological understanding is seen as a precondition, the course is designed for those with little or no particular knowledge of coal, its evolution and optical features. It is therefore suitable for established professionals, active scientists trying to enhance their spectrum of scientific methods, post-doctorates, post-graduate as well as undergraduate students who require a more thorough theoretical and practical understanding of coal and its petrography.
The course is centred on the petrology of coals with a particular emphasis on their petrography. Practical applications and technological importance will be stressed.
A Certificate of participation will be awarded to each person completing this course, but this does not include accreditation from the ICCP. Information for the ICCP Accreditation Program can be found at Accreditation.
2. Registration and fees
Registration includes tuition. Costs include course notes, lunches and coffee and farewell function.Cost for the course excludes travel, accommodation and meals except where stated. Printed notes will be available for the courses. Powerpoint presentations will be used for the lectures. Course notes will be distributed to each participant and a CD of the notes and Powerpoint presentations will be available.
Company / Professional | 1300 € |
Government / Non-Profit | 700 € |
Student | 250 € |
Those interested in participating in this course must send the registration form to the ICCP Treasurer Mrs Jen Pearson. Further information about the course, and local logistics can be obtained from Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de .
3. Payments
Payment should be settled at the latest on 15 May, 2013. After registration in the course you will receive, from our Treasurer Mrs. Jennifer Pearson, a proforma invoice with the amount due and all details of bank account for bank transfer and/or for payment with credit card (only VISA and MASTERCARD).
Email the registration form to Jen Pearson at jen@coalpetrography.com and to Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de.
4. Accommodation
Participants must make their own accommodation reservations directly.
A special arrangement has been made with:
STEIGENBERGER HOTEL SANSSOUCI
Allee nach Sanssouci 1
14471 Potsdam, Deutschland
Telephone: +49 331 9091-0
Telefax: +49 331 9091-909
E-mail: potsdam@steigenberger.de
www.steigenberger.com/en/Potsdam
Costs: 95 EUR incl. breakfast & free use of public transport in Berlin and Potsdam. Please refer to special rate “ICCP Training“. Hotel Registration form. The special rate is valid until: 28.04.2013
Further hotels in Potsdam:
http://www.potsdam.de/cms/ziel/26854/EN/ If you need further information please contact: Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de
5. Venue
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Telegrafenberg
14473 Potsdam, Germany
The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has a good connection to the railway service and to the international airports of Berlin. From Berlin there is an easy access by public transport. From the Potsdam-Hauptbahnhof you can walk in 15 Minutes to the Campus “Albert Einstein”. A detailed location plan is available from the GFZ-website: http://tinyurl.com/dz63eb
The GeoLab is situated in Building A27, Big Refractor (Großer Refraktor),
a campus plan is also available from the GFZ-website: http://tinyurl.com/nnyq3b
6. Course outline
The course will meet daily from 9:00 am until 6:00pm, with breaks for morning and afternoon tea, and lunch.
Course Outline
- Introduction to organic petrology, its history, including an overview of the ICCP and the purpose of accreditation.
- The concepts of coal rank, type and grade.
- Introduction to sampling and sample preparation, the petrologic microscope, coal-petrographic entities and analytical methods, e.g. point counting, reflectance determination.
- Coal Classification, ICCP, ISO, ASTM and others.
- Biochemical and geochemical stages of coalification, their causes and effects; vitrinitisation versus fusinitisation; the effects of pressure, temperature and time.
- Chemical and physical parameters of coal rank.
- Palaeo-environmental signatures.
- Some prerequisites of coal formation – the role of climate and floral evolution.
- Peat-depositional environments and their effects on coal composition.
- Coal-measure sediments including the floor and roof rocks of coal.
- Coal measure sedimentology and the sequence stratigraphic setting of coalfields.
- The tectonic setting of coal fields, including sedimentary and tectonic aspects of coal mining.
- Introduction to carbonisation and coke petrology – the relationship between coke microstructure, carbonisation conditions and the source coal.
7. Trainers

Claus Diessel
Claus Diessel was born in Stendal, Germany, and obtained his PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin in 1961. After a brief period of employment as coal petrologist at the Bergbau-Forschung in Essen-Kray, he joined the University of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, from which he retired as Emeritus Professor in 1992. Since then, he has worked as a private consultant.
Claus is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (elected 1996) and Honorary Life Member of the Society of Organic Petrology (TSOP) since 1998. He received the ICCP Reinhard Thiessen Medal in 1992 and the Baragwanath Plaque in 1990.
His research interests are centered on theoretical and applied aspects of coal geology, including the sedimentology of coal deposits, as well as the microscopy of coal and coke. In these fields, he has authored one monograph and contributed chapters to four other books. In addition, he has authored and co-authored some 150 research papers and review articles in both refereed and non-refereed journals and conference proceedings.
In addition to his lecturing commitments at the University of Newcastle, Claus has conducted workshops and provided in-service courses in Australia and abroad for various organisations, including the Australian Mineral Foundation, NSW Department of Mineral Resources, CRA Limited, Anaconda Australia Inc., AGIP Petroleum, Kalgoorlie School of Mines, Kembla Coal & Coke Co. Ltd., EXXON Production Research, and others.

Walter Pickel
Walter Pickel received his PhD from the Rheinish Westfaelische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen, Germany in 1991.
He taught and worked at RWTH until 1998. Afterwards he joined CSIRO Petroleum in Sydney, Australia as a senior research scientist. In 2003 he joined Harold Read & Associates and co-founded Coal & Organic Petrology Services P/L in Sydney in 2004, a company of which he is the managing director.
Apart from teaching at Aachen University, he has been giving classes and workshops at Cologne University, in Chile, Indonesia and Australia. He was appointed visiting professor at the Instituto de Geologia Economica Aplicada – GEA at the University of Concepcion, Chile in 2000.
He is author/co-author of some 80 reviewed papers and abstracts. He is a member of the ICCP since 1991.
8. Disability-related needs
If you plan to attend the course and you have disability-related needs, please contact Antje Treutler at treutler@gfz-potsdam.de
31 July to 3 August, 2012
Brisbane, Australia
Teachers: Claus F.K. Diessel & Walter Pickel
September 7-9, 2011
University of Porto
Portugal
Teachers: Alan C. Cook & João G. Mendonça Filho
May 9-13, 2011
University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Teachers: Alan C. Cook & Claus F. K. Diessel
June 14-18, 2010
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ
Potsdam, Germany
Teachers: Alan C. Cook & Claus F. K. Diessel
November 16-20, 2009
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam
German Research Centre for Geosciences GFZ
Potsdam, Germany
Teachers: Alan C. Cook & Claus F. K. Diessel