Aurora

Employment & Opportunities

Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor - Department of Earth Sciences - Western University

The Department of Earth Sciences is seeking a candidate for the Robert W. Hodder Chair in Economic Geology, in honour of the late Professor Robert W. Hodder. The successful candidate will be appointed at the rank of Assistant Professor (Probationary (tenure-track)), Associate Professor (Probationary (tenure-track) or with Tenure), or Full Professor with Tenure depending on qualifications and experience. The salary will be commensurate with the successful candidate’s qualifications and experience.

The successful candidate must have a PhD in the Earth Sciences and bring skills and experiences complementary to the Department. The candidate will have an established record of generating ore deposit research and funding, and a history of interaction with the mineral resource sector. The candidate's research should emphasize field work and relating geoscience observations to mineral systems models. Industry collaborative research should be complemented by excellent communication skills and an enthusiasm for teaching and enhancing student education. Candidates with a research focus in ore deposit geology and skill sets that pertain to critical minerals as defined by The Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy and/or precious metals will be given priority.

Research in the Department of Earth Sciences at Western falls into the broad themes of Earth and Planetary Systems; Resource Geoscience; Tectonic Processes and Crustal Dynamics; and Earth Evolution: Life, Climate and Environment. The successful candidate will be expected to establish and maintain a vigorous, independently funded research program in Economic Geology, and to collaborate with other faculty members in one or more of our research themes. The successful candidate is expected to supervise graduate students at the MSc and PhD levels and to teach broadly-based as well as specialized courses in Economic Geology and related fields, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Evidence of demonstrated effectiveness in leadership, collaboration, and outreach is also highly desirable. This is an exceptional opportunity for a geologist with industry experience to enhance a departmental tradition of field-based teaching and research through engagement of alumni and others active in mineral exploration.

More details can be found here.

Metal Earth Postdoctoral Fellow Position - Université Laval

Dating and sources of auriferous fluids along the Destor-Porcupine Fault Zone. The Metal Earth team has determined the age of gold mineralization and source of sulfur in the Val-d’Or vein field. It has also undertaken detailed research on fluid flow patterns along the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault Zone (CLLFZ), from Val-d’Or to Kirkland Lake. The Destor- Porcupine Fault Zone (DPFZ) is associated with the largest gold deposits of the Abitibi but the timing of auriferous fluid flow and source of sulfur in the gold deposits remains undetermined. In comparison with the CLLFZ, the fluid flow patterns in relation to the gold endowment are not documented.

Objectives: 1) date gold events by U-Pb monazite and xenotime that are coeval with the gold assemblage; 2) assess the source of sulfur in sulfides coeval with gold using in situ multiple sulfur isotopes; 3) document using H-O isotopes the fluid flow patterns along the DPFZ in relation to gold endowment.

The PDF will contribute to supervision of graduate students, within a team integrated with other researchers of the Metal Earth program. The research will include field and laboratory work. The PDF candidates must hold a PhD since a maximum of 3 years at the start of the position. Experience in Archean terrane geology, and strong fundamental and laboratory expertise are required in areas specific for each PDF position. The 2-year positions will start as soon as possible.

Salary will be determined according to the collective agreement in place at the time of hire. Salary range is from $40 000 to $55 000 per year plus benefits.

Applications will be accepted until February 29, 2024. More details can be found here.

Roger E. Deane Postdoctoral Fellowship - The Department of Earth Sciences - University of Toronto

The Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Canada, invites applications for the Roger E. Deane Postdoctoral Fellowship in any field of the Earth Sciences. The Department is interested in supporting innovative research and excellent early career geoscientists to work in collaboration with one or more faculty members.

Applicants must contact potential supervisors in advance to discuss areas of common interest and proposal ideas. Applicants must obtain approval from a proposed supervisor to apply. Only applicants who have secured a potential supervisor willing to supervise will be considered. Faculty who may be eligible and available to supervise are listed here.

This endowed award was created thanks to a bequest from Dorothy M. Deane, widow of the late Prof Roger E Deane, an alumnus of the Department of Geology, University of Toronto (U of T). Prof Deane obtained a PhD in 1949 under the supervision of Prof Alexander Maclean, and returned to U of T as a faculty member in 1955, pursuing research in the areas of glacial geology and Pleistocene paleoenvironments. Prof Deane served as the inaugural Director of Research at the U of T Great Lakes Institute which eventually contributed to the founding of the U of T School of the Environment. Prof Deane died in a tragic boating accident near Tobermory, Ontario in 1965 while undertaking field work.

Applicants must have a PhD in Earth Sciences, Geology, Environmental Science or closely related field at the time of taking up the appointment.

The winner will be selected on the bases of academic excellence, merit of the proposal, and potential to contribute to the geosciences. Applications will also be evaluated on how the proposal merges the specialties of the applicant and the proposed supervisor, so submitted proposals should cover greater scope than a reiteration of the applicant’s doctoral work. Bringing new perspectives to the Department, and bringing experiences and meaningful plans for connecting to groups that have been historically marginalized in the geosciences, are also criteria that will be considered in our evaluation of excellence.

More details can be found here.

News & Events

IOF SEMINAR - February 9, 2024

What can black carbon in the ocean tell us about wildfire in the Earth system?

In the deep ocean persists an enigmatic class of organic compounds that are presumed to have a condensed aromatic structure, are biologically unreactive, and are broadly termed “black carbon”. In the dissolved phase, black carbon comprises ~2% of the total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) housed in the ocean, which is roughly equivalent in size to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. In the abyssal ocean, dissolved black carbon (DBC) is about 15,000 14C-years older than bulk DOC, suggesting that the DBC fraction is particularly important for evaluating stability of the marine organic carbon pool over multi-millennial timescales. However, the answer to one key question continues to elude us: Where does ancient DBC in the deep ocean come from? The path to the answer is littered with sampling and methodological limitations, dead ends, and surprise detours. It was thought that most DBC in the ocean originated from wildfires on land, but results from compound-specific stable carbon isotopic analyses suggest otherwise. This talk describes a persistent quest to figure out where oceanic DBC comes from and features new research in which we are leveraging black carbon deposited in ancient marine sediments to understand wildfires that occur at critical junctures in Earth’s history.

Please RSVP here.