Alumni News - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto
Alumni News - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto
Alumni News - Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto
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Contents<br />
Message from the Chair 1<br />
Canadian Mining Hall <strong>of</strong> Fame 3<br />
<strong>News</strong> Honours and Awards 4<br />
Explorers Fund Report 5<br />
2008 Grads and Award Winners 6<br />
Acknowledgements 7<br />
SMGRL <strong>News</strong><br />
Planetary Science<br />
7<br />
8<br />
In Memoriam 10<br />
Geochronology Lab <strong>News</strong> 12<br />
Joint Assembly Meeting 13<br />
<strong>News</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Alumni</strong> and Friends 13<br />
2<br />
Continued .... from the Chair<br />
sonde Program in Mineral Engineering, or the geophysics<br />
option <strong>of</strong> Engineering Science). Graduate student numbers<br />
are about the same as last year, perhaps because the voracious<br />
(at least until very recently) demands <strong>of</strong> industry for<br />
qualified people persuaded many B.Sc. graduates to enter<br />
the work force immediately upon graduation. Maintaining<br />
the quality <strong>of</strong> our programs as enrolments rise requires considerable<br />
work, and I am very ably assisted in meeting these<br />
challenges by our Associate Chairs, James Brenan (Undergraduate<br />
Affairs) and Russ Pysklywec (Graduate Affairs).<br />
Last year, Sandy noted a very important point, one which<br />
the economic events <strong>of</strong> the last few months have emphasized.<br />
The growth that we need to sustain to meet the longer<br />
term needs <strong>of</strong> our students, and <strong>of</strong> the country, requires<br />
resources both to support our students, and to maintain, and<br />
improve where possible, the quality <strong>of</strong> the infrastructure<br />
that makes their education here a truly rich experience, both<br />
intellectually and pr<strong>of</strong>essionally. We will need to rely on<br />
both existing and new ways for achieving this. An existing<br />
vehicle for this, you will remember, is the Explorer’s Fund,<br />
that we launched two years ago. Spearheaded by Laurie<br />
Curtis (Ph.D. 1975, Founder <strong>of</strong> Intrepid Mines) and guided<br />
by an outstanding Industry Steering Committee, the Explorers<br />
Fund is a way for alumni and friends to support students<br />
in the <strong>Department</strong> through the creation <strong>of</strong> Graduate and<br />
Undergraduate Scholarships. An Annual Fund contributes<br />
to the students’ costs <strong>of</strong> field education and supports other<br />
initiatives related to the quality <strong>of</strong> their experience in the<br />
<strong>Department</strong>. The Explorer’s fund endowment has now<br />
grown to $573,556 from donations and matching funds. In<br />
the past year alone, 7 new student awards have been created,<br />
including two by Industry Steering Committee member<br />
and 2008 U <strong>of</strong> T Arbor Award recipient Nick Tintor<br />
(B.Sc. 1980), who established the Nick and Marilyn Tintor<br />
Explorers Fund Graduate Scholarship and the Daniela and<br />
Alexander Tintor Undergraduate Scholarship. One area in<br />
which we would very much like to see growth is the Annual<br />
Fund, which would directly improve the field course education<br />
<strong>of</strong> our students. Please consider making a donation,<br />
<strong>of</strong> any size, to one <strong>of</strong> the Explorers Funds this year – these<br />
donations will help significantly improve the access <strong>of</strong> our<br />
students to the best training possible, not just this coming<br />
year, but for decades forward, in good times and bad.<br />
The Explorer’s fund specifically addresses one aspect <strong>of</strong> the<br />
<strong>Department</strong>’s life: the direct support <strong>of</strong> students and their<br />
lab and field experience. There is more to our task than this,<br />
however. Maintaining and improving effective delivery <strong>of</strong><br />
programs requires, over the long term, sustaining and augmenting<br />
the faculty we have to deliver our programs, and<br />
the infrastructure those programs depend on. The <strong>Department</strong>,<br />
with the collaboration <strong>of</strong> the Advancement Offices <strong>of</strong><br />
the Faculty <strong>of</strong> Arts and Science and the <strong>University</strong>, is preparing<br />
the groundwork for a more extensive and expansive<br />
fundraising effort to address these issues, which will see the<br />
number <strong>of</strong> faculty personnel increased through the creation<br />
<strong>of</strong> more endowed chairs and a critical investment in state<strong>of</strong>-the-art<br />
educational facilities and equipment. Because<br />
geology is a high-cost but small-enrolment program we see<br />
this planned external fundraising as essential to our ability<br />
to deliver informed and effective <strong>Earth</strong> Science graduates<br />
to meet Canada’s needs in future decades. We need act<br />
now to lay the ground for these initiatives, to anticipate the<br />
needs <strong>of</strong> the upswing in the economic conditions that the<br />
next cycle will bring.<br />
The <strong>Department</strong>’s regular addition <strong>of</strong> new faces to its<br />
faculty and staff rosters has slowed this year, briefly we<br />
hope, but its activities have not. You can read more about<br />
the activities and honours <strong>of</strong> its members in the following<br />
pages <strong>of</strong> the <strong>News</strong>letter. We take very special pride in the<br />
election <strong>of</strong> our colleague Emeritus Pr<strong>of</strong>essor D. H. (Digger)<br />
Gorman to the Canadian Mining Hall <strong>of</strong> Fame (opposite<br />
page). You can also catch up with us and our activities at<br />
our annual reception at the PDAC on Tuesday, March 3<br />
from 5:00 to 7:30 pm. I look forward to meeting you there<br />
and catching up on your activities as well. I would also<br />
like to extend an invitation to all alumni and friends to visit<br />
the <strong>Department</strong> at any time. We will be happy to show you<br />
around, and do our best to arrange meetings with students<br />
and faculty, and are always willing to discuss ideas for the<br />
<strong>Department</strong> and provide updates on what we are doing.<br />
Dick Bailey