John joined the Mineral Exploration Research Centre as Associate Director in February 2013. He received BSc and MSc degrees from Carleton University and a PhD degree from the University of Ottawa. He worked for 28 years with the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS) mapping Precambrian greenstone belts at detailed to regional scales in the Wabigoon and Abitibi Subprovinces and 10 years for the exploration industry. He was leader for the OGS Precambrian mapping group in NE Ontario, Targeted Geoscience Initiative 3 in the Abitibi and coordinator of the Greenstone Architecture project at Laurentian University (LU) under the Discover Abitibi Initiative. He supervises graduate students as an Adjunct Professor at LU. His academic interests include geochronology, stratigraphy, lithogeochemistry and geodymanics with a focus on the controls of metal deposition in Archean Terranes.