Past Student Awards

Rupert MacNeill Award

Given to the best undergraduate paper presented at an AGS meeting.

  • 2025. Geena Morse, St. Mary’s University (with Anna Terekhova and Jacob Hanley): “The nature and role of mafic end-member magmas in the development of critical metal deposits in Devonian plutons in Nova Scotia”
  • 2024. Jessica MacIsaac, Cape Breton University (with Edward J. Matheson and Jason Loxton): “Repeated soft-sediment deformation structures in the Pomquet Formation (Mabou Group) of Cape Breton: are they seismites?.”
  • 2023. Michael LeBlanc, Saint Francis Xavier University: “Zircon petrochronology of the West Barneys River Plutonic Suite: Insights into the origin of a potential critical element (REE and Zn) deposit in Nova Scotia.”
  • 2022. Logan Cormier, St. Mary’s University: “The first description of vertebrate and invertebrate ichnofossils in the Stellarton Basin (Westphalian C), Nova Scotia.”
  • 2021. Bailey Milos, Dalhousie University: “Experimental study of the formation condition of trigonal etch pits on diamonds.”
  • 2020. Olivia Rolfe, Dalhousie University (with Djordje Grujic): “Strength evolution of a crustal-scale shear zone on the example of the Himalayan Main Central Thrust.”
  • 2019. Liam MacNeil, University of New Brunswick (with Audrey Limoges, Guillaume Massé, and Sofia Ribeiro): “Recent changes in diatom production and sea-surface conditions in the North Water polynya, northern Baffin Bay.”
  • 2018. Max Chipman, Acadia University (with M. Grey and P. Pufahl): “New insights into a brackish Carboniferous ecosystem through the coprolites of the Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2018. Kate Woods, Dalhousie University (with James M. Brenan): “An experimental study of the effect of water on chromite saturation in komatiite.”
  • 2017. Corin Jorgenson, Dalhousie University (with James M. Brenan): “Sulphur solubility of carbonatites, with implications for mass transfer in Earth’s mantle”
  • 2016. Christopher Sangster, St. Mary’s University (with Georgia Pe-Piper, and Yuanyuan Zhang): “Fluorine-rich ferroan calcite and diagenetic zircon in the Newburn H-23 well: Indicators of unusual diagenetic processes”
  • 2015. Emmaline Atherton, Dalhousie University (with Djordje Grujic): “Seismic strain and the state of stress in the crust of the Himalaya”
  • 2014. Ben Misiuk, Acadia University (with Drake Tymstra, Ian Spooner, and Chris White): “A comparative study of anthropogenic impact on dimictic lakes in Halifax regional Municipality, Nova Scotia: Implications for restoration and management.”
  • 2013. Dawn Tobey, Dalhousie University (with G. Wach): “High resolution sequence stratigraphy of the Banquereau Formation, Offshore Nova Scotia.”
  • 2013. Evan Slater, Dalhousie University (with M. Zentilli, and J. Hanley): “Geochemical and fluid inclusion study of a suite of samples from Busang, Kalimantan, Indonesia.”
  • 2012. Mark Higgins, Dalhousie University (with M. Young, R. Cox, D. MacDonald and A. Flemming): “Placer gold provenance in the Black Hills Creek watershed, west-central Yukon: exploration strategies from grain morphology and geochemical analysis.”
  • 2011. Jessica Wilson, Dalhousie University (with R. Boric, J. Diaz and M Zentilli): “Geochemistry of the igneous rocks associated with the MMH porphyry copper deposit, Chuquicamata District, Chile.”
  • 2010. Matt Stimson, St. Mary’s University (with Andrew MacRae): “Evidence of fossil horseshoe crabs at Joggins: Paleoichnology and paleoenvironmental implications.”
  • 2009. Darren LeFort, St. Mary’s University (with Georgia Pe-Piper and David Piper): “Petrology of the mafic trigger of the Kos Plateau Tuff super-eruption, 0.16 Ma, Greece.”
  • 2008. Chris Yakymchuk, Dalhousie University (with Mary Sanborn-Barrie, Joyia Chakungal and Rebecca Jamieson): Petrology and tectonic significance of coronitic mafic granulites, Southampton Island, Nunavut.
  • 2007. Marc Laflamme, Queen’s University, for the paper (with Guy Narbonne), “Tiering in Ediacaran fronds from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland”.
  • 2006. Adam Layman, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Preliminary investigations of Nb in melt-fluid systems using in situ X-ray spectroscopy “.
  • 2005. Nigel Selig, Dendrochronology Lab, Department of Geography, Mount Allison University, for the paper, “A history mystery: dendroarchaeological investigations at the Campbell Carriage Factory”, co-authored by A. Robichaud and C.P. Laroque.
  • 2004. Christopher Hamilton, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Ice-contact volcanism in southwest Iceland: analysis of hyaloclastic flow deposits using remote sensing, stratigraphy, and geochemistry”.
  • 2003. No award because of joint meeting with GSA, northereastern section.
  • 2002. David Risk, Saint Francis Xavier University, for the paper, “Physical processes controlling soil respiration: results from four sites in eastern Nova Scotia”, co-authored with Lisa Kellman and Hugo Beltrami.
  • 2001. Michelle DeWolfe, Saint Mary’s University, for the paper, “Petrological evidence for extensive liquid immiscibility in the Jurassic North Mountain Basalt, Nova Scotia”.
  • 2000. Michael Young, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Minor folds and their relationship to regional fold evolution, central Meguma Terrane, Nova Scotia”.
  • 1999. Krista Page, Dalhousie University, for the paper (with Anne Marie) O’Beirne-Ryan, “Uranium, radium, and radon in streams and domestic well waters: a GIS analysis of geological, geochemical, and geophysical relationships”.
  • 1998. Mark Deptuck, Saint Mary’s University, for the paper, “Characterization and interpretation of Late Cretaceous to Eocene erosional features and associated submarine fan deposits in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, offshore Newfoundland”.
  • 1997. Jennifer van der Gaag, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Characterization of outburst channel sandstones in the Phalen Colliery, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia”.
  • 1996. Vanessa Gale, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Paleotectonic setting and petrogenesis of the Takla Group volcano-sedimentary assemblage, north-central British Columbia”.
  • 1995. Marcus Tate, Dalhousie University, for the paper (with D.B. Clarke and M.A. MacDonald), “Late Devonian mafic-felsic magmatism in the Meguma zone”.
  • 1995. Tammy Allen, Dalhousie University, for her paper, “A study of carbonate rocks from the Late Visean to Namurian Mabou Group, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia”.
  • 1995. Ellen Tobey, Dalhousie University, for the paper (with Megan McConnell, Paul E, Schenk and Peter H. Von Bitter), “Carbonate microbial mounds, mineralized vents, periplatformal oozes and slump domes in Macumber equivalents, eastern Cape Breton”.
  • 1994. Jodie E. Smith, McMaster University, for the paper (with M.J. Risk, A. Ruffman and P. Mudie, “A new archive: Late Quaternary climatic reconstruction using the deepwater coral Desmophyllum cristagalli“
  • 1993. Marcus Tate, Dalhousie University, for the paper (with Barrie Clarke), “Weekend dykes, a suite of Late Devonian spessartite lamrophyres in the Meguma Zone of Nova Scotia”.
  • 1992. David Keighley, University of New Brunswick, for the paper (with R.K. Pickerill), “Strangely preserved flutes and grooves from the fluvial Port Hood Formation, (Carboniferous) of western Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia”.
  • 1991. Chris Beaumont-Smith, University of New Brunswick, for the paper (with Paul Williams), “Textural development in experimental shear zones using analogue materials”.
  • 1990. Robert MacNaughton, University of New Brunswick, for the paper “Ichnology of the Triassic Lepreau Formation, southern New Brunswick”.
  • 1989. Catherine Farrow, Acadia University, for the paper “Magmatic epidote and high-aluminum hornblende-bearing diorites and tonalites of the southeastern Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia”.
  • 1988. Wayne McNeil, Acadia University, for the paper (with N. Van Wagoner), “Stratigraphy and physical volcanology of the eastern portion of the Devonian volcanic belt of Passamaquoddy Bay, southwestern New Brunswick”.
  • 1987. Alison Steele, Acadia University. “Petrography and geochemistry of the gabbronorite 1 subzone, Stillwater Intrusion: a lunar analog study”.
  • 1986. Dwaynne Beattie, Dalhousie University, for the paper, “Gravity modelling of a mafic, ultramafic association, Darvel Bay, East Sabah, N. Borneo”.
  • 1985. David Carter, University of New Brunswick, for the paper “Lithostratigraphy of the Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous Horton Group of the Moncton Subbasin”.
  • 1984. Allan A. Huard, St. Francis Xavier University, for the paper, Huard, A. and Teng, H.C. “A study of the Fisset Brook Formation at Lake Ainslie, western Cape Breton Island”.

Rob Raeside Award

Given to the best undergraduate poster presented at an AGS meeting.

  • 2025. Abbey Smith, Acadia University (with Ian Spooner, Mo Snyder and Mitch Maracle): “A qualitative assessment of coastal erosion processes in Hantsport, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2024. Keaton Markham, Acadia University (with Mo Synder and Masoud Aali): “Using hyperspectral imaging of drill core to classify the mineralogy of the Walton barite deposit, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2023. Monet Streit, Acadia University: “Petrography and chemistry of Early Carboniferous volcanic rocks in the northeastern Cobequid Highlands, Nova Scotia.” 
  • 2022. Nikita Lakhanpal, St. Mary’s University: “Survey of porewater geochemistry within deep marine hydrocarbon seep sediments of the Scotian Slope.”
  • 2021. Margaret Scott, St.F.X.U.: “Conditions of pocket formation in Zapot pegmatite, Gillis Range, Nevada.”
  • 2020. Nicole K. LeRoux, Dalhousie University (with Joseph Tamborski and Barret L. Kurylyk): “Heat as a tracer in coastal settings: quantifying pore water fluxes using temperature, pressure, and conductivity.
  • 2019. Dylan Wyles, Acadia University (with Ian Spooner, Baillie Holmes, Savanna Francis, and Selena Denny): “An applied paleolimnological assessment of anthropogenic impact in a back- barrier lagoon: Pictou Landing, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2018. Taylor A. Ducharme, University of Ottawa (with David A. Schneider, and Mark J. Coleman): “Resolving episodes of deformation and hydrothermal quartz precipitation in the Amalgamated Break fault, Abitibi Subprovince, Ontario from microstructural and SEM-CL analyses”
  • 2017. Jennifer Adam, University of New Brunswick (with Karl Butler, and John Evangelatos): “Inferring post-Jurassic movement of the Oak Bay Fault through acquisition and modelling of magnetic profiles across the Ministers Island Dyke in Brook’s Cove, Maine.”
  • 2016. Lori Paslawski, Saint Francis Xavier University (with Alan J. Anderson, Christopher McFarlane, and Brandon Boucher): “Boron concentrations in spodumene-hosted fluid inclusions from the Tanco pegmatite, Manitoba.”
  • 2015. Kriselle Dias, Dalhousie University (with Alison Leitch): “Laboratory modelling of magma mingling.”
  • 2014. Jennifer Archibald, Victoria DesJardins, Laura-Ann Broom, Jeff Minichiello, & Anne Marie Ryan, Dalhousie University: “Heavy metal concentrations in residential soils within the Halifax Peninsula, Nova Scotia: A pilot study”.

Sandra Barr Award

Given to the best graduate oral presentation at an AGS meeting.

  • 2025. Michael Powell, Dalhousie University (with Lauren DiPietro and James Brenan): “Constraining modal proportions of biotite, muscovite, and Fe-Ti oxides in granites using µXRF: Identification, mapping, and modelling.”
  • 2024. Pēteris Rozenbaks, Dalhousie University (with James M. Brenan): “Redox-sensitive element partitioning between apatite, biotite, and glass in natural igneous rocks.”
  • 2023. Maureen Matthew, Dalhousie University: “Rock avalanches in northeastern Baffin Island: Understanding low occurrence in a region of high hazard potential.”
  • 2022. Nicolas Piette-Lauziere, University of British Columbia Okanagan: “Late Devonian deformation and exhumation in the northern Appalachians: a syntaxial origin?”
  • 2021. Luke Bickerton, Laurentian University: “Constraints on the emplacement of the South Mountain Batholith using zircon petrochronology and implications for Sn-W metallogeny in the northern Appalachians.”
  • 2020. Philip Sedore, Dalhousie University (with Vittorio Maselli, Alexandre Normandeau and Calvin Campbell): “Investigation of submarine landslides and geological hazard assessment of Pangnirtung Fjord, eastern Baffin Island (Nunavut).”
  • 2019. Mitchell Kerr, Saint Mary’s University (with Jacob Hanley, and Daniel Kontak): “Preliminary evaluation of the use of bulk fluid inclusion volatile signatures for exploration of argillite-hosted disseminated gold deposits: a case study in the Meguma Terrane, Nova Scotia, Canada”
  • 2018. Matthew Stimson, St. Mary’s University (with R. Andrew Macrae, Randell F. Miller, Steve J. Hinds, Nicholas J. Minter and Zabrina Prescott): “A review of Kinneyia simulans: An ichnotaxonomic approach to wrinkled microbially induced sedimentary structures from New Brunswick, Canada.”
  • 2017. Stephanie Todd, Acadia University (with Peir K. Pufahl, J. Brendan Murphy, and Kevin G. Taylor): “Sedimentology and oceanography of Early Ordovician ironstone, Bell Island, Newfoundland and Labrador: ferruginous seawater and upwelling in the Rheic Ocean.”
  • 2016. Travis McCarron, University of New Brunswick (with Chris McFarlane, and Fred Gaidies and honourable mention to Jillian Kendrick – MUN): “P-T path of metamorphism for a garnet-zone schist in the western Cape Breton Highlands”.
  • 2015. Sharane Simon, Dalhousie University( with Martin Gibling): “Sedimentology and taphonomy of the plant bearing beds of the Colwell Creek Pond site in the Early Permian Clear Fork Group of north-central Texas.”.
  • 2014. Justin Drummond, Acadia University (with Peir Pufahl, Claudio Porto and Mariana Carvalho): “Neoproterozoic peritidal phosphorite, Sete Lagoas Formation, Brazil: Implications for the Precambrian phosphorus cycle”.
  • 2013. Mitchell Kerr, St. Mary’s University (with J.J. Hanley): “Preliminary evaluation of trace hydrocarbon speciation and abundance by bulk GC analysis of fluid inclusion volatiles as an exploration tool for footwall-style sulfide ore associated with the Sudbury Igneous Complex, Ontario, Canada”.
  • 2012. Zabrina Prescott, Dalhousie University (with M. Stimson, L. Dafoe, M. Gibling and A. MacRae): “A microbial mat and associated trace fossil assemblage at Coal Mine Point, Nova Scotia: paleoenvironmental significance and evidence of a previously unrecorded transgression”.
  • 2011. Ravinder Pannu, University of Saskatchewan and Acadia University (with Nelson O’Driscoll, S. Siciliano, J. Dalziel and A. Rencz): “A laboratory method for the quantification of mercury and GHG volatilization from soils”.
  • 2010. Casey O’Laughlin, St. Mary’s University Department of Geography (with Danika n Proosdij): ” Spring-neap sediment dynamics within a macro-tidal salt marsh tidal creek: preliminary findings”.
  • 2009. Jamie Braid (with J.B. Murphy, J.K. Mortensen and C. Quesada), St. Francis Xavier University: “U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology of the South Portuguese Zone (Southern Iberia): linkages to Avalonia and Meguma”.
  • 2008. Samantha Jones, University of Calgary (with Alan Hildebrand): “Acoustic velocity and elastic moduli profiles and corresponding fracture density and orientation patterns in artificially shocked granite: preliminary results.”

Graham Williams Award

Given to the best graduate student poster at an AGS meeting.

  • 2025. Dylan J. McKeen, Acadia University (with Deanne van Rooyen, Chris White, Sandra Barr and Rob Raeside): “Origin, terrane affinity, tectonic evolution, and age of the Clyburn Brook Formation, Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2024. Mitch Maracle, Acadia University (with Ian Spooner and Denise Brushett): ” The geoscience of wine: the influence of surficial geology on viticulture in the Gaspereau Valley – Grand Pré region, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2023. John Dooma, Saint Mary’s University: “Geological and geophysical basin characterization of the Cenozoic across the Tangier 3D Seismic Survey, central Scotian Slope, with focus on the subsurface architecture of associated prospective hydrocarbon seep sites.”
  • 2022. Évelyne Sunatori, Acadia University: “Extent and timing of deformation and metamorphism associated with the Eastern Highlands shear zone, central Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia.”
  • 2021. Anirban Chowdhury, St.Mary’s University: “Is methane clumped isotopologue the future offshore exploration tool?”
  • 2020. Caitlin McCavour, Dalhousie University (with Shannon Sterling, Kevin Keys, Edmund Halfyard and Lawrence Plug): “The effects of dolomitic limestone application on forest soil and tree nutritional status on two acidic sites in Nova Scotia.”
  • 2019. Mehmut Memtimin, Saint Mary’s University (with Zhaojie Guo, Georgia Pe-Piper, and David J.W. Piper): “Facies architecture, eruption history, and emplacement mechanism of subaqueous lava-carbonate succession in Bogda Mountain, northwest China.”
  • 2018. Steven L.E. Rossiter, University of New Brunswick (with Bruce E. Broster): “Portable X-ray fluorescence analysis of terminal grade in basal till south of the Mount Pleasant deposit, New Brunswick.”
  • 2017. Emily Palmer, University of New Brunswick (with D.R Lentz, C.R.M. McFarlane, and H. Falck): “Petrogenesis of the Archean Prestige leucogranite and associated pegmatites, Northwest Territories: insights from muscovite geochemistry and apatite U-Pb geochronology.”
  • 2016. Cody Paige, Dalhousie University: “A UHV extraction line for in-situ produced cosmogenic 14C to improve the reliability of dating strain markers .”
  • 2015. Dewey Dunnington, Acadia University (with Chris White, Ian Spooner, Hilary White, Nelson O’Driscoll and Nic McLellan): “A 10,000 year record of environmental change at Long Lake, Cumberland Marshes Region, Nova Scotia – New Brunswick border region, Canada.”
  • 2014. Lea Braschi, Dalhousie University (with Thomas Lakeman, Natalia Rybczynski, Guang Yang, and John Gosse): “Development and collapse of the Pliocene western Canadian Arctic coastal plain”.
  • 2013. Lea Braschi et al., Dalhousie University: “Pliocene landscape and environmental evolution in the Canadian Arctic: when was the Beaufort Formation incised? “.
  • 2012. Janice Allen, Dalhousie University (with Chris Beaumont): “Impact of inconsistent density scaling on physical analogue models of margin scale salt tectonics”.
  • 2011. Annina Margreth, Dalhousie University (with John Gosse and A.S. Dyke): “Testing the concept of altitudinal weathering zones on Cumberland Peninsula, Baffin Island, using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) exposure dating”.
  • 2011. Jacob Hansen, University of Maine at Farmington, (with D Reusch): “Imbricated Seboomook Group, Bald Mountain, west-central Maine: tectonic, slump, or mixed origin?”.
  • 2010. Harun Alrashid Mohamad Idris, Acadia University (with Cliff Stanley): “Anomalous Zn concentrations in the West Barneys River Intrusion, Antigonish Highlands, Nova Scotia”.
  • 2009. Tamara Moss (with Cliff Stanley), Acadia University, “Lithogeochemistry of the Quebrada Blanca porphyry copper deposit, Atacama Desert, northern Chile”.
  • 2008. Kieran McDonald, Acadia University (with David Piper and Ian Spooner): “A Holocene sedimentary record of the Labrador Current “.
  • 2007. Helen Neilson, Dalhousie University for the poster (John Gosse), “Landform evolution in the south central Andes: determining the major mechanisms of formation of the great escarpment between 32 and 38 degrees south, Argentina”
  • 2006. Brent Lennox, Acadia University for the poster, “Post-glacial climate change and its effect on the thermal structure and habitat in a shallow dimictic lake, Nova Scotia, Canada”
  • 2005. Tansy O’Conner-Parsons, Department of Geology, Acadia University for the poster, “Downhole trace and major chronostratigraphic patterns relating to igneous fractionation processes in the Golden Mile Dolerite, Western Australia”, co-authored with C.R. Stanley
  • 2004. Shawna Weir Murphy, Saint Mary’s University, for the poster, “Cretaceous rocks of Orpheus Graben, offshore Nova Scotia. “
  • 2003. No award because of joint meeting with GSA, northestern section
  • 2002. David Moynihan, Dalhousie University, for the poster, “Metamorphism and structure of the White Rock Formation in the Yarmouth area, Nova Scotia, co-authored with Chris White and Rebecca Jamieson.”
  • 2001. Martin Ethier, Acadia University, for the poster, “Reinterpretation of the geology of the Cape Breton Highlands using remote sensing and geological databases.”
  • 2000. Christie Dyble, Acadia University, for the poster, “A high resolution stratigraphic and petrological investigation of the Braeburn Member, Charlie Lake Formation, Peace River Arch, northwestern Alberta: reservoir implications.”
  • 1999. Loretta Ransom, St. Francis Xavier University, for the poster (with B. Murphy and D.J. Kontak), “Occurrence of microgarnets coring plagioclase crystals in granodiorite of the South Mountain Batholith, Nova Scotia.”
  • 1998. Nicole A. Quickert, Dalhousie University, for the poster (with Dorothy I. Godfrey-Smith, Joanna L. Casey and Alicia Hawkins), “Optically and thermally stimulated luminescence dating of Birimi, a multi-component archaeological site in Ghana, Africa.”
  • 1997. Sandra Marshall, Acadia University, for the poster (with Ian S. Spooner) “An investigation of drumlins in southwestern Nova Scotia: distribution, orientation and mode of formation.”

Encana Prize

Given in 2016 and 2017 to the best poster in the offshore geology session.

  • 2017. Isabel Chavez, Saint Mary’s University (with David J.W. Piper, Georgia Pe-Piper, and Yuanyuan Zhang): “Black shale Selli Level recorded in Cretaceous Naskapi Member cores in the Scotian Basin”
  • 2016. Carlos Wong, Dalhousie University (with Carla H. Skinner, Bill Richards, Ricardo L. Silva, Natasha Morrison and Grant Wach): “1D thermal model of South Venture O-59, Sable Subbasin (Scotian Basin, Nova Scotia)”

Noranda Award

Given between 1997 and 2002 for the best student presentation in economic geology.

  • 2002. Noranda decided to terminate award because of reduced activity in the Maritimes.
  • 2001. Lawrence Mireku, Acadia University, for the paper, “Geology, geochemistry and hydrothermal alteration of the Lower AB Zone, Halfmile Lake North volcanic hosted massive sulphide deposit, Bathurst, New Brunswick.”
  • 2000. Ian DeWolfe, Acadia University, for the poster, “Structural and geometrical analysis of saddle reef folds at the mesothermal gold deposit, Port Dufferin, Halifax County, Nova Scotia: implications for future exploration and resource assessment.”
  • 1999. Geoff Allaby, University of New Brunswick, for the paper (with B.E. Broster and A.G. Pronk), “Late Wisconsinan glacial movement in the Petitcodiac map area, southeastern New Brunswick.”
  • 1998. Lorne C. Jennex, St. Francis Xavier University, for the paper (with J.B. Murphy and A.J. Anderson), “Geological and geophysical investigation of the western St. Mary’s Basin, central Mainland Nova Scotia: implications for paleoplacer potential.”
  • 1997. Kelly Janssens, University of New Brunswick, for the paper (with Tom A. Al), “Geochemical changes in the soil profile due to deforestation.”