1. Bill Stiebel president-elect for the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences (CFES). Click here for more.

2. APGO member Bob Hodder awarded CFES Mentorship Medal 2010. Click here for more.

3. Peter Russell Endowment at the University of Waterloo For over thirty years, Peter Russell has been the Curator of the Earth Sciences Museum at the University of Waterloo. He has authored several books and has championed countless volunteer outreach activities and has become an influential member of the Earth science outreach community across Canada. He received the E.R. Ward Neale Medal in 2004. The University of Waterloo wishes to honour Peter and keep his hard work and efforts alive within the walls of the Earth Sciences Museum for generations of young geologists to come. To do this they are raising funds in support of the Peter Russell endowment.

This endowment will ensure the sustainability of the Earth Sciences Museum that has been created and nurtured by Peter. Those of us who know Peter understand the enormous contribution he has made to Earth Science outreach in Canada in a quiet and unassuming way. This endowment is in his name and I hope that many of us will see fit to support it by completing this form and making a donation.

4. $900,000 raised for Haiti at the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame dinner. Click here for more.

5. A joint alumni reception of the Departments of Earth Science at uOttawa, Carelton will be held in conjunction with the Minerals Colloquium from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, March 8, 2010 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel Ballroom at the PDAC convention in Toronto. Click here for more.

Ontario Geologist Receives Order of Canada
By Claudia Cochrane, M.Sc., P.Geo. Communication Committee

Bruce Sanford, a retired geologist from the Geological Survey of Canada, has been appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. He has been honoured for "sustained and distinguished achievements in geology, particularly during his tenure with the Geological Survey of Canada".

The Order of Canada was established in 1967 as Canada's highest civilian honour and since then it has been presented to more than five thousand people, 57 of them this year. This recognition credits the importance of geological practice in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.

Bruce discovered geology as a student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia which he attended following his wartime service in the Canadian Army. During these years, he had the good fortune to be hired for summer field work by the Geological Survey of Canada. Upon graduation in 1949, he was invited to join the GSC, first on a temporary project, and then permanently. He spent his entire career with the agency, or on loan to various organizations for special studies. Two such secondments included the Atlantic Geoscience Centre which he established within the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia for the purpose of mapping Canada's Atlantic continental shelf to encourage oil and gas exploration; and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd to head up a study of subsurface salt deposits with a view to storing nuclear waste. Later this mandate was extended to investigating deep storage within Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield, particularly in Ontario and Manitoba.

Of particular importance to Ontario's petroleum industry was his earliest mandate to study and map the Paleozoic rocks of southwestern Ontario. This was originally undertaken at the Geologic Survey to the benefit of oil and gas exploration, and later to investigate those aforementioned salt deposits. During this period, Bruce was a true field geologist, spending his summers outdoors, and his winters inside, drawing maps and cross sections. The maps were all hand plotted and contoured, allowing the geologist plenty of time for subtle creative thinking as well as encouraging the development of broad theories. View complete article