AGS Colloquium, Truro 2020

The 46th Colloquium and Annual General Meeting of the Atlantic Geoscience Society were held at the Holiday Inn, Truro, Nova Scotia, on February 7 to 8, 2020. over 210 participants enjoyed a full and diverse program pushing the boundaries of geoscience in all its branches. As usual, the event was well attended by industry, government and university participants, including 5 professors, 15 students and many former students from Acadia University.

The two-day conference featured both talks and posters. Acadia speakers were Drs. Morgan Snyder and Cliff Stanley, with Cliff also providing a full-day workshop on QAQC methods in geochemistry. Graduate students Caleb Grant, Lauren Muzak Ruff and undergraduate students Julia Crews and Michael Tamosauskas presented posters, as did former student Miguel Vaccaro. Miguel's poster was one of eight presentations at the conference co-authored by Sandra Barr!

Two Acadia Geology alumni were recognized with awards at the closing banquet.

Ralph Stea (BSc 1977, above centre) was awarded the Society's top honour, the Gesner Medal for his work in Quaternary geoscience. Ralph completed his PhD at Dalhousie and spent most of his career with the geological branch of the Nova Scotia government, where he pioneered the study of Ice Age deposits. His work is still widely cited, as revealed by his nominator Denise Brushett (above, left). Also shown is David Lentz, UNB, the incoming Society president.

The Society's Laing Ferguson Distinguished Service Award was made to Terry Hennigar (BSc 1965). Terry still lives in the Wolfville area and had made his career in the area of groundwater geoscience. For over 55 years he has worked in hydrogeology, originally a student of Rupert MacNeill, professor at Acadia until 1982. As a practising hydrogeologist, he has worked all over the region, including advising on the installation of groundwater supply for geothermal purposes on the Acadia campus.

As is usually the case at AGS colloquia, the event wrapped up on Saturday night with musical notes - initially with five Acadia people involved (above - Zach Martin, current student, Bob Ryan (BSc 1975), Dewey Dunnington (MSc 2016), John Waldron (adjunct professor) and not pictured Ian Spooner).

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