In an interview with SBS Spanish, Dr Ley-Cooper highlighted the need to develop an honest dialogue between science and decision making to adopt environmental measures that protect the future of a country.
He said science should go hand in glove with political decision-making.
"Science offers the opportunity to make informed decisions and not in the political heat or with the idea of supposed progress," said the Mexican geophysicist based in Australia.
Highlights
- Originally from Mexico, his geophysicist's work informs government planning.
- Dr Ley-Cooper came to Australia to study towards a PhD at Monash University.
- A lot of his job is spent making electromagnetic maps of the land from the air.
Dr Ley-Cooper is an expert in geophysics and works for , a government body that advises the Australian government on all aspects of geoscience, including the conservation of data and geographic and geological knowledge of the country.
His specialisation is in the exploration of the subsurface through the use of electromagnetic waves.
I explain it as a way to see, explore or hear what is in the subsurface, without necessarily drilling or making disturbances in the ground.
He regrets that many political decisions are made without considering fundamental scientific evidence. As an example, he cited the construction of the Mayan Train in Mexico, a 1,525 km railway project that will cross the Yucatan Peninsula and is due for completion by the end of 2023.
The project is part of the electoral promises of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who during his presidential campaign pledged to bring "progress to the south of the country”.
But Dr Cooper said the project had generated controversy because much of that train line was being built in an area where the world's largest underground rivers were located.
"The reality is that below (where the train line is built) there is a world of aquifers, where biodiversity depends directly on these rivers," he said.
Dr Ley-Cooper studied geophysics at the Faculty of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and in 2003 travelled to Australia to complete a PhD at Monash University in Melbourne.
His background includes a long lineage of many migrant relatives.
He said his Chinese grandfather had emigrated to the American continent in the early 1900s to join construction workers building the railway network of the United States.
But he never arrived to the United States, he instead travelled to Mexico to work on farms and fell in love with his future wife, an indigenous woman of the Mayo people, an ethnic group of northern Mexico, and it was with her that he built a family.
Dr Ley-Cooper's grandparents on his mother's side were from England but she was born and raised in Australia until she decided to travel to Mexico where she met Dr Cooper’s father.
Many years later, Dr Ley- Cooper said he decided to move to Australia to continue his university studies and conduct research on saline intrusion, a process by which salt water displaces fresh water.
Alan Yusen Ley Cooper about to go to work. Source: Supplied
He said he is currently coordinating the collection of data from flights that are helping to map Australia's geological features from the air.
"I specialise in helicopters and aeroplanes that carry sensors that register the pulse from the ground and that's how we hear the response of the earth… we can create the equivalent of an X-ray in three dimensions,” he said.
"It's similar to an MRI scan which determines the volume of bodily organs or an X-ray."
The Mexican scientist described how these flights worked by gathering information about the composition of the Australian subsurface, a technique that was originally developed to meet the needs of the mining industry.
"This is a very interesting technique and I'm passionate about it... You fly these big magnets that look like a net in the air below a helicopter or an aeroplane,” he said.
“With this method, a contrast of electrical–conductivity is sought, that is, materials are sought that when pulsed with electricity turn into efficient conductors and those can be associated to minerals. "
Source: Supplied
He said another of his passions was to bring geophysics to the humanitarian field to discover resources that could improve the quality of life in communities.
"One of the things that I like the most, is the discovery of aquifers, which is where you find drinking water for people", he said.
He added that his team of scientists are collecting geoscientific-data to inform the Australian government on many levels, including environmental decision-making.
"We're taking inventory of what's there [because] I think that by knowing that, we can make much wiser decisions about whether an aquifer should be exploited, or whether there's a lithium deposit that's located over a conservation area," Dr Ley-Cooper said.
"[With the] collection of data and creation of maps, [it is possible] to make better decisions, to take care of our heritage and to take care of what we are going to leave behind for our children and grandchildren," the Mexican geophysicist said.
The world’s largest airborne electromagnetic survey. Source: Supplied
Other stories from SBS Spanish:
Latin Stories: The award-winning project increasing visibility of Spanish-speaking communities in Australia
