SEG - Society of Economic Geologists

26 SEG NEWSLETTER No 90 • JULY 2012
SEG NEWS
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Candidates for SEG Officers: Profiles and Vision Statements (Continued)
Deposits in Nevada, USA: Critical Geo -
logic Characteristics and Viable Models,
published in 2005. Most recently, she
has been a coauthor on a comprehensive
model describing a magmatic hypothesis
for the formation of these deposits,
which was published in Nature Geo -
science in 2011.
Jean has been an SEG fellow since
1983, serving on several SEG committees,
and she was selected as the Society’s
International Exchange Lecturer in
2004. She has been a member of the
society’s Publication Board and she has
been an associate editor for the journal,
Economic Geology, since 2000.
Vision Statement
In the nearly 30 years that I have been
an SEG member, I have watched the
Society evolve to become an international
organization that is now highly
invested in supporting students who are
the future of our Society and our profession.
My vision for SEG is for the
Society to continue along a path of recognizing
and supporting, equally, economic
geologists from all backgrounds
and ethnicities.
Our Society is increasingly relevant
and essential in a world where resource
consumption is accelerating as populous
second- and third-world countries
seek to improve their standards of living
through increased resource consumption.
Through our journal, workshops,
conferences, research support for students
and lecture series, we will continue
to contribute to improved resource
exploration strategies, improved understanding
of ore deposit processes, and
advances in mining and mineral processing.
As we develop new deposits
and new technologies for discovery, it
is incumbent upon us to be leaders in
balancing discovery and development
of natural resources with ethical behavior
regarding social and environmental
needs. We have the opportunity and
obligation to lead by example and I
look forward to our Society continuing
to be a leader in innovative and ethical
resource exploration and production as
we move forward into the future.
SEG
www.segweb.org
Candidate for Councilor (2013–2015)
THOMAS MONECKE (SEG 2003 FL)
Thomas completed his
undergraduate and
graduate studies at the
University of Freiberg,
Germany, which in -
cluded a year as an ex -
change student at the
University of Edinburgh,
Scotland. After gaining
work experience at the Office for the
Environment and Geology of the State
of Saxony, Thomas commenced a doctoral
study on a joint research project
between the Centre for Ore Deposit
Research at the University of Tasmania,
Australia, and the University of Freiberg.
He earned his Ph.D. in 2003 for his
research on a volcanic-hosted massive
sulfide deposit in northern Australia.
Between 2003 and 2008, Thomas conducted
postdoctoral research on modern
and ancient gold-rich volcanichydrothermal
systems at the Geological
Survey of Canada, the University of
Ottawa, and the University of Kiel,
Germany. In 2008, he joined the
Colorado School of Mines as an assistant
professor in economic geology.
Thomas’s main research interests center
on the formation of precious and base
metal deposits in modern and ancient,
submarine and subaerial volcanic arcs,
as well as volcanic and magmatic controls
on the location and formation of
ore deposits in these environments. His
research includes physical volcanology,
the study of the evolution of volcanic
textures during diagenesis, hydrothermal
alteration, and metamorphism, and
investigations into fluid-rock and fluidmineral
interaction in hydrothermal
environments. Over the past decade,
Thomas and his research team have
worked in volcanic terrains ranging from
the Archean Abitibi greenstone belt in
Canada to shallow marine hydrothermal
systems in the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy.
The results of his research have been
published in over 60 journal papers,
book chapters, government publications,
and field guides.
His SEG service includes participation
in various committees, including the
SEG Education and Training Committee,
the SEG Lindgren Award Committee, and
the Organization Committees of the SEG
Keystone Conferences in 2010 and 2014.
Thomas received the SEG’s Waldemar
Lindgren Award in 2006 for his contributions
to economic geology.
Vision Statement
One of SEG’s key objectives is to advance
the science of geology through research
on mineral deposits and mineral re -
sources and to promote the transfer of
basic and applied science into knowledge
applicable to the advancement of
exploration and mineral resource extraction.
As a scientist and educator, I greatly
respect this objective and the role the
organization plays in bringing together
industry, academia, and government to
advance the science required for making
discoveries under increasingly deeper
cover and to develop mineral resources
in sustainable ways.
Over the next decade, the objectives
of SEG will need to be broadened to not
only further develop the science of economic
geology, but also to promote and
facilitate the training and education of
economic geologists at all levels. The
demand for geological talent is now so
acute that the lack of qualified geologists
becomes a limiting factor for growth of
the industry. Private sector companies,
to a large extent, rely on universities to
produce highly qualified students with
strong backgrounds in ore deposit geology.
However, university-based training
in economic geology is declining in most
countries around the world as university
administrations struggle to balance budgets
and shift resources to other fields of
science and engineering. The shortage
of talent not only affects industry, but
also directly translates into a decreasing
number of young scientists conducting
cutting-edge research in economic geology.
Those academic institutions still
replacing faculty in economic geology
and related fields find it increasingly
difficult to recruit young geologists into
academic positions to make strategic
advances in science and to teach the
next generation of economic geologists.
Together, as economic geologists and
SEG members, we will need to find ways
to reverse this trend of declining training
and education in economic geology
and its impacts on science and innovation.
It is my vision that SEG will take
up this challenge and become a catalyst
for the development of new strategies
of training economic geologists in both,
university and industry. SEG’s efforts to
support student education and research,
coupled with the recent development
of a curriculum of continued education,
are essential steps in this direction. 1