William Harvey Gross Award

William Harvey Gross Award

The William Harvey Gross Award is bestowed annually by the Mineral Deposits Division (MDD) to a geoscientist under the age of 40 (as of December 31st of the nomination year) who has made a significant contribution to the field of economic geology in a Canadian context. The recipient may be either a Canadian or non-Canadian who has made a contribution in Canada, or one within a Canadian context. The contribution on which the award is based may relate to studies that include all aspects of what is generally referred to as economic geology, and which represents the broad spectrum of fields to which Bill Gross contributed. These include mineral exploration and development, scientific research either applied or fundamental, and field based studies.
The award consists of a medal and a cash supplement supported through endowment funds provided by Corona Corp. and donations by the friends and family of Bill Gross to provide a contribution toward the travel expenses for the recipient and guest to attend the annual luncheon of MDD to receive the award.

The 2023 William Harvey Gross Award is awarded to Dr. Christopher Lawley (Geological Survey of Canada)

The 2023 William Harvey Gross Award is awarded to Dr. Christopher Lawley. Dr. Lawley is a highly creative, intelligent, productive, and enthusiastic scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 2005 and worked with the industry for a couple of years. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in 2009 for the study of the MAX porphyry deposit, and his Ph.D. degree in 2012 for his work on the Paleoproterozoic Lupa goldfields of Tanzania. He joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 2012. In his first projects as leading scientist, he combined field work and state of the art geochronology, geochemistry and data analysis techniques, to demonstrate the multi-stage nature of gold mineralization in the Meliadine gold district of Nunavut and the Lynn Lake belt of Manitoba. His work later focused on deciphering mechanisms for gold upgrading in the lithospheric mantle and the formation of fertile reservoirs, helping elucidate why some regions are better endowed than others. Importantly, throughout such major metallogeny projects, Dr. Lawley developed new sample preparation and analytical methods, data analysis and interrogation tools, and new protocols for portable devices such as pXRF and pLIBS. He his currently heavily involved in collaborative research with the USGS and Geoscience Australia on critical minerals, and in national-scale mineral potential mapping and data analytics. He also currently leads a major research project on lithospheric controls on gold in the Golden Triangle area of NW B.C. This illustrates both his high-level knowledge diversity and expertise in economic geology that he has gained over the last few years. Dr. Lawley is a highly dedicated and prolific scientist, and an exceptionally talented writer with over 20 peer-reviewed papers in major journals in the last 10 years, plus numerous GSC reports and presentations. He was co-editor of the 2015-2020 TGI-5 Gold Project synthesis. He joined the Editorial Board of Economic Geology in 2016 and is highly valued as both as editor and reviewer. Dr. Lawley is part of a very promising generation of geoscientists, but what clearly separates him from many other talented young scientists is that he has the ability to conduct detailed field-based research, while being an amazing geochronologist, geochemist, metallogenist, programmer, and methodology developer – very few scientists can claim having all these skills. 

The William Harvey Gross Award was presented to Dr. Christopher Lawley at this year’s GAC-MAC 2023 meeting in Sudbury.


Past Winners

Main Awards Page
2022: S. Perrouty
2021: P. Lecumberri-Sanchez 

2020: J.-L. Pilote
2019: M. DeWolfe
2018: No award
2017: J. Hinchey
2016: S. Dare
2015: L. Ootes
2014: S. McClenaghan
2013: M. Houlé
2012: D. Layton-Matthews
2011: J. Hanley
2010: S. Gleeson

2009: P. Mercier-Langevin
2008: P. Hollings
2007: E. Thomas 
2006: S. Piercey 
2005: Y. Pan
2004: S. Lin
2003: R. Sherlock 
2002: J. Peter
2001: J. P. Richards
2000: C.E.G. Farrow
1999: D. Lentz 

1998: P.C. Lightfoot

1997: D. Wyman

1996: M.C. Hannington

1995: W. Bleeker

1994: S.J. Barnes

1993: J.F.H. Thompson

1992: H.L. Gibson

1991: D. Wilton 

1990: F. Robert

1989: R.M. Britten 

1988: R. KerrichNew Paragraph

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