Are you interested in pursuing graduate studies in Earth Sciences?
Join Professors Miriam Diamond and Phil Heron, and Graduate Student Administrator Scott Moore, at an information session and Q & A about the programs, funding opportunities, research projects and application processes in our department.
Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: ES1062
Pizza lunch will be provided.
Session will be in-person and via Zoom
About this event:
What: Occupational and Environmental Health Seminar
Speaker: Dr. Miriam L. Diamond
When: Friday October 13, 2023 from 12:10 to 1:00pm (ET). Please click here to register.
Dr. Miriam L. Diamond will present on “Can We Reduce Inevitable Exposures to Chemicals of Concern?”. Please see below for additional details and to register.
Title: “Can We Reduce Inevitable Exposures to Chemicals of Concern?”
Populations are inevitably and inequitably exposed to chemicals of concern which is causing population-wide adverse health effects. The inevitability of exposure comes from basic thermodynamic theory coupled with high chemical production volumes and human activities. Failure of chemicals management is the root cause of population-wide adverse effects due to, for example, the growth in chemical production and proliferation in the number of chemicals produced. I will present four reasons for, and offer five solutions to redress this failure, ranging from promoting hazard and not risk assessment to putting a hard cap on chemical production.
Presenter: Dr. Miriam L. Diamond
Miriam L. Diamond, a professor at the University of Toronto, has advanced knowledge of chemical emissions, their transport processes, and resultant human and ecological exposure, and chemicals management policy. This work has been published in over 200 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, in addition to receiving media attention. Diamond is an Associate Editor of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, was the co-chair of the Canadian Chemical Management Plan Science Committee from 2017 to 2021, is the Vice-Chair of the International Panel on Chemical Pollution, and is the chemicals and waste member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
Full link to registration page: https://phesc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwkc–uqT4jE9CzsqQZhIYY__nLjOPeqK3o
(Please note, registration for this seminar will be through Zoom, not Eventbrite)
The 2023-2024 seminar series will be held online via Zoom. Webinar details will be sent to all registered participants. Please read your confirmation email to find the Zoom link, meeting ID and passcode. As always, this is an open invitation so please distribute this invitation throughout your organization and professional networks. More information on upcoming seminars can be found on the OCRC website.
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Corliss Sio who has been named a
Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) 2023/24 Distinguished Lecturer
Corliss will offer the Peter Buseck Public Lectures on
Enigmatic archives of magmatic processes: Decoding mineral zoning and melt inclusions with Fe-Mg isotopes
and
The silver lining of disequilibrium: Iron isotope perspectives on planetary petrology
To learn more about her research, visit Corliss’ faculty profile page and her website.
Nelson, holding a sample of a pebble dike from the Tintic Mining District, Utah USA, while attending the Yellowstone field trip organized by the UofT SEG Student Chapter in May 2023.
Congratulations to Nelson Roman Moraga, recipient of the 2022/23 Laurence Curtis Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in Earth Sciences. Nelson is a Chilean economic geologist with five years of working experience in the mining industry, working as exploration geologist, mine geologist, geochemist and geometallurgist in various companies. He got HBSc and MSc degrees in geology at University of Chile, and currently he is a third year PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at UofT, in Professor Dan Gregory’s research team. His research aims to understand the source of metals, metallogeny and main geochemical features of the orogenic gold deposits in Yukon, Canada, through the study of sulfides and gold alloy in these systems.
Geoff Norris, Professor Emeritus, passed away at home on June 26, 2023.
Geoff was an important leader in our Department, serving two terms as Chair from 1980-1990. He joined the department in 1967. After graduating with his doctorate at Cambridge, Geoff worked for the New Zealand Geological Survey as a palynologist, then briefly in industry in the United States, before moving to Canada to take up a professorship initially at McMaster and then U of T. As Chair of the department Geoff made several notable and forward-thinking hires of faculty and staff during that time, and played a key role in the move from the Mining Building into the Earth Sciences Centre in 1989. He was heavily involved in the design of the new building and ensuring that it would meet Earth Sciences faculty needs at the time of the move but also in future generations. The design of the new building and moving into it was a massive undertaking, and was highly successful, for which we have Geoff to thank. He retired in 2003 and continued to be active with his research as an emeritus professor
Geoff was highly regarded for his research in the areas of palynology, micropaleontology and biostratigraphy. He was a pioneer in the early study of fossil dinoflagellates and contributed significantly to their modern understanding as vital tools in biostratigraphy and paleonvironmental analysis. Geoff’s lengthy publication record includes important contributions on dinoflagellate systematics, acritarchs, Cretaceous and Cenozoic palyno-floras, and paleoclimatic inference. Geoff also published a monograph on the Mesozoic geology of the Moose River Basin and co-authored the highly cited and the still standard guide “Quaternary Pollen and Spores of the Great Lakes Region”. His work nimbly transcended different geological time periods. Over his lengthy career, Geoff inspired and mentored many students, postdocs and visiting scientists with his enthusiasm and innovative ideas.
A celebration of life will be held on July 29, 2023 from 2-6 p.m. at 18 Concorde Place, Toronto. If desired, donations may be made towards a scholarship, to the Chair of the Earth Sciences department, Attn: Sarah Finkelstein, that will be established in his name for Geology students within the Department of Earth Sciences who may be experiencing financial hardship. Make a donation to the Geoffry Norris Memorial Award Fund.
An obituary was published in the Globe and Mail.
Geoff will be greatly missed, and we continue to benefit from the lasting impacts he had on the Department of Earth Sciences here at UofT and on the broader geoscience community.
