Where are they now?

Graduates of the geology program at Lakehead University have gone on to a wide range of careers in the geological sciences. This page provides a list of some of those success stories. If you are a graduate from the Geology program and would like to have your name included here please contact Dr Pete Hollings.

Featured Alumni

 


 

Noreen Evans

 

Since graduating from Lakehead in 1984 (HBSc; Rare earth geochemistry of lamprophyre dykes from the Coldwell Complex, northwestern Ontario with Roger Mitchell), Noreen has completed a MSc (McMaster University) and a PhD (University of Ottawa), both focusing on various aspects of platinum-group element geochemistry. Noreen then headed to the California Institute of Technology to undertake a post-doctoral research fellowship (hypervelocity impact processes) before moving to Australia to take up a CSIRO Research Scientist position (ongoing).  Noreen co-developed the first (U-Th)/He dating capability in Australia and currently resides with her family in Perth. 

 

Graduates of the Geology program

John Biczok 

John graduated from the program in 1976. He has worked extensively in the mining and exploration industry, including running an exploration program in India. John worked as a Senior Geologist at the Musselwhite mine in Northern Ontario and is now a consultant geologist in Ottawa.

Katarina Bjorkman

Katarina graduated in 2011 having completed a thesis on "Alteration Geochemistry of the Hackett River Main Zone VMS Deposit" and is now working on a PhD at the University of Western Australia.

Andre Dunford 

Andre graduated in 2003 and since then has worked as the Crew Geologist for the Mars Society's Desert Research Station in 2005-2006. In 2006 Andre released a documentary entitled CREW 44 which told the story of eight young scientists and engineers training and conducting scientific research at the Mars Desert Research Station during the winter of 2006. 

Dan Ferraro

 

Dan graduated from the undergraduate program in 2008 and is currently working as a Project Geologist for Pacific Northwest Capital Corp. Dan studied the structure and metamorphism of Kooyak Island, Nunavut, for his Honors thesis. 

Don Foley

Don graduated from Lakehead in 1983 and moved to Calgary after a stint with Newmont Mining Corporation out of Vancouver. Don worked for several years in the field on various advanced projects including Eskay Creek up in northwest BC. Starting in 1993 he worked his way into the oil patch, first as an independent wellsite geologist, then into the office as an operations/area geologist. Don has been working for Encana Corporation in Calgary for the past 10 years.

Geoff Heggie     

Geoff graduated from the MSc program in 2005 having studied the PGE mineralisation in the Seagull intrusion. Geoff recently completed his PhD at the University of Western Australia and is now working as a Project Research Geologist for Panoramic Resources in Thunder Bay.

Justin Johnson 

Justin graduated from the undergraduate program in 2001 and then went on to do an MSc on the mineralisation of the Norton Lake region, which he completed in 2005. Justin is currently working as a project geologist for Panoramic Resources in Thunder Bay.

Janine Klarner

Janine graduated from the undergrad program in 2011 having completed an Honours thesis on the "Examination of the Absorbance of Light and the Crystallographic Properties of Amethyst Exposed to Thermal Bleaching". Currently she is doing gold exploration for Ausgold Limited in Katanning, Western Australia.

Roisin Kyne

Roisin completed her undergraduate degree in 2009 having completed an Honours thesis on "Clay Alteration of the Cerro la Mina Porphyry-Epithermal Deposit, Chiapas, Mexico". She recently completed her PhD at the University of Tasmania, Australia and is now a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences in Dublin.

Ben Kowalczyk 

Ben graduated from the undergraduate program in 2007 having completed an Honours thesis on the Moose Lake porphyry at the Hemlo mine. Ben is currently working at Hemlo as a mine geologist.  

Chris Lane 

Chris did his Honours thesis on the Rabbit Island breccia. He graduated from the undergraduate program in 2005 and after a stint working as a Junior Mine Geologist at North American Palladium's Lac des Illes mine move out west and is now a Senior Geologist at Teck's Coal Mountain Operations.

Al MacTavish 

Al completed his MSc on the PGE mineralisation of the Quetico intrusions in 1992. Since then Al has worked extensively in the exploration industry and is currently Chief Geologist for Panoramic Resources in Thunder Bay.  

Cam McCuaig 

Cam graduated from the undergraduate program in 1988 having completed an Honours thesis on the Deadhorse Creek Zn-Pb-Ag veins. He completed a PhD at the University of Saskatchewan and then  joined SRK Consulting in 1996. In 9 years with SRK Cam served as a Principal Consultant, Chairman of the Principal's Group (strategy group for SRK Australasia), and as a Director of the company. Cam is currently the Director of the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western Australia.

Jack Parker 

Jack graduated from the undergraduate program in 1980. Jack is currently the Director of the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS), part of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

Eric Potter

Eric is currently working as a "Uranium Metallogenist" for the Geoogical Survey of Canda.  He is working within the Northern Uranium for Canada project, funded under the Geomapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) program. North of 60 degrees, this project targets the Thelon, Hornby Bay, newly discovered basins and the Great Bear magmatic zone west of Yellowknife to determine what methods from the well-known Athabasca Basin can be applied and what new methods must be developed unique to these basins.  After completing his MSc. thesis with Roger Mitchell in 2004 (The rare and exotic mineralogy of the Deadhorse Creek Diatreme, Northwestern Ontario), he studied under Richard P. Taylor at Carleton University and completed a PhD thesis on the "Genesis of polymetallic mineralization and the metallogeny of the Paleoproterozoic Cobalt Embayment, Northern Ontario".  

Peir Pufahl  

Peir completed his undergraduate degree at Lakehead in 1992 and then an MSc on the iron formations of the Gunflint Formation in 1996. He went on to do a PhD at the University of British Columbia on the sedimentary and oceanography of Upper Cretaceous phosphorites of Jordan; NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen's investigation Miocene and Pliocene cool-water carbonates from South Australia. Peir is  currently an Associate Professor at Acadia University. 

Marc Rinne 

Marc completed his honours thesis at LU on the Big Lake Ultramafic complex in 2007 and then a MSc thesis on the Big Lake VMS occurrence in 2009. Marc recently completed a PhD at the University of Tasmania, Australia and is now working for the Manitoba Geological Survey in Winnipeg.

Becky Rogala 

After completing her MSc thesis on the Sibley Group in 2003 Becky went on to a PhD at Queen's University. Becky is now working for Imperial Oil in Calgary. 

Allan Schappert

Allan graduated from Lakehead University with a BSc. Geology in May 1979.  After a couple of years of geophysical exploration across northern Canada, he signed on as a section geologist at Denison Mines in Elliot Lake, Ontario.  After 8 years there it was time to move on and he and his wife chose to be adventurous and he accepted a position as Project Geologist at PT. Freeport at their Ertzberg complex in Irian Jaya, Indonesia.  He was there through the discovery and early development of the now well known Grasberg Mine.  He left Freeport after 8 years of which the last few were as Chief Geologist Underground Mines. In 1996 he moved with his family to the United States, where he has worked for a number of operating mines and international consulting firms.  He is presently employed as a Project Specialist at Stantec Consulting in their mining group. 

Mark Smyk 

Mark Smyk graduated from the geology program at Lakehead in 1984 having completed an Honours thesis entitled "A comparative study of silver occurrences, Island Belt Silver region, Thunder Bay District, Ontario". Mark went on to complete an MSc at Carleton University before joining the Resident Geologist Program with the Ontario Geological Survey in 1987. Mark is currently based in Thunder Bay where he is the Regional Resident Manager for the Northwest Resident Geologist Program of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines.

Tim Twomey

Tim graduated from Lakehead in 1983 and is currently working for Premier Gold in Thunder Bay