All News

Dr. Daniel Kontak wins Duncan Derry Medal

Dr. Daniel Kontak, Full Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Laurentian University, has been named the 2016 winner of the Duncan R. Derry Medal, awarded by the Geological Association of Canada.

Dr. McDonald and Sarah Gordon win the 2015 Hawley Medal

The Hawley Medal of the Mineralogical Association of Canada was awarded to our faculty member Dr. Andrew McDonald and Sarah C. Gordon (M.Sc. Geology from Laurentian in 2013) for for the paper "A study of the composition, distribution, and genesis of pyrrhotite in the Copper Cliff Offset, Sudbury, Ontario"

Pictures from Matheson field work

A few pictures from field work conducted in Matheson, May 2016:

Congratulations Rémy Poulin, M.Sc. Geology!

Rémy Poulin successfully defended his M.Sc. in Geology today, with the thesis titled "Scheelite geochemistry as an indicator of intrusion-related W-Mo-(Au) mineralization"

South Africa and Canada on common ground!

On May 10, 2016, Sandra McCardell, the High Commissioner of Canada to South Africa with accreditation to Lesotho, Madagascar, Marutitius and Namibia met with LU DES graduate students; Michael Langa, Evan Keir-Sage, Thabiso Makohliso and Cédric Mayer in South Africa. All four students are M.Sc. candidates who have had learning and teaching experiences in Earth Sciences at both the University of Limpopo, South Africa, and at Laurentian University, Canada.

Pictures from the Year End Banquet!

LU M.Sc. student wins the 2016 Mary-Claire Ward Geoscience Award

This year’s recipient of the Mary-Claire Ward Geoscience Award is Jordan McDivitt of Laurentian University...

Job Posting: Canada Research Chair in Metallogeny (Tier I)

The Department of Earth Sciences (DES) and Mineral Exploration Research Centre (MERC) at Laurentian University invite applications for a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Metallogeny that integrates ore system research with broad scale tectonic processes...

LU student part of the SIFT geology winning team!

Congratulations to Philippe Trudel for winning the 2015 Student Industry Field Trip (SIFT) competition in Calgary, AB!

Joe Petrus on "Quirks and Quarks"

Joe Petrus was interviewed about his work at Laurentian University.

New graduate student research lab!

Graduate students can now use the following equipment in the research lab on the 5th floor...

More than $1000 raised in minerals auctions!

Students, faculty of DES and members of the broader geological community have been avidly bidding on rocks and minerals in the past months...

CIM Sudbury Branch donates $25,000

CIM Sudbury Branch representatives Sue Tessier and Trang Tran-Valade presented a $25,000 donation towards upgrading the Department of Earth Sciences’ petrographic microscope facilities...

New Microscopes!

The Goodman School of Mines’ generous donation of $ 50,000 allowed the Department of Earth Sciences to buy new Olympus BX41 microscopes and Lumenera cameras to accommodate our students’ learning and research.

Dr. Schindler's CBC Radio Interview

Dr. Michael Schindler was interviewed on CBC radio about the black coating on Sudbury rocks.

Summer Field Activities

The summer field season is upon us and most members of the department are beginning to leave for the field.

CMIC Footprints Secretariat to be based in DES/MERC

The new $12m pan-Canadian NSERC-CMIC-CRD "Multidisciplinary Exploration Fooprints" project will be based at LU. Including 42 researchers from 24 universities across Canada and 28 sponsoring mining companies and mineral exploration companies...

Departmental Banquet

The Third Annual DES End-of-Year Banquet was held on Saturday 06 April 2013 at the Italian Club in Copper Cliff.

Special Issue of The Canadian Mineralogist edited by Andy McDonald

The 11th International Platinum Symposium (IPS) held at Laurentian University 21-24 June 2010 was successful on many fronts but none more than the scientific merits that were realized. One tangible piece of evidence for this is a recently published, special thematic issue The Canadian Mineralogist (vol 49, part 6) which drew heavily from some of the presentations made at the IPS, along with submissions received from international researchers conducting fundamental research into the origin, distribution and processing of platinum-group elements.

Layton-Matthews Receives Gross Medal

Daniel Layton-Matthews has been awarded the 2012 William Harvey Gross Medal by the Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada, joining Harold Gibson, Steve Piercey (now at Memorial University), Catharine Farrow (Adjunct), and Peter Lightfoot (Adjunct) as members of the Department who have won the award. Dan obtained his MSc from LU in 2003 and is presently Associate Professor of Geochemistry and Ore Deposits at Queen's University. Congratulations Dan!

Awards to DES Faculty: Geologists collect constellation of awards

Senior faculty members at Laurentian University’s Department of Earth Sciences and the Mineral Exploration Research Centre have been honoured with prestigious awards in their respective geological fields.

06-09 March 2011 - PDAC - Toronto

Thanks to the many of you who dropped by the MERC/DES booth at PDAC and attended the hugely successful Alumi Reception. The reception was filled with alumni and friends, who came to catch up with each other and to hear about recent initiatives in the Department, MERC, and LU by DES Chairman Dan Kontak, MERC Director Michael Lesher, and LU President Dominic Giroux.