July 2010

Early Accomplishment Award
 

The Early Accomplishment Award is given to PEGNL members in recognition of exceptional achievement in the early years of an engineer’s or geoscientist’s professional career. The Awardee will have shown outstanding work-related achievement within ten years of eligibility for professional registration.
 

Dr. John Hinchey, P.Geo.

What, you may ask, does Sherlock Holmes have to do with geoscience?

Well, like Sherlock, geoscientists are masters of detection and deduction. They are looking for clues to the past.

John Hinchey completed his B.Sc. Honours and his M.Sc. degrees at Memorial University, and his Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa.

He earned several scholarships and awards, including: the CIM Student Essay Award for his B.Sc. Honours thesis; the Buchans Scholarship during his M.Sc. studies at MUN; and the Excellence Scholarship for his doctorate studies in Ottawa. His post-graduate research resulted in several peer-reviewed publications in international journals. 

John began work with the Geological Survey of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005.

His research focus, both as a student and as a professional geologist, has been on economic geology.

Since joining the Geological Survey, he has been researching the base-metal mineralization in the highly prospective volcanic and sedimentary rocks of central Newfoundland. His work has shed new insights on rocks south of the famous Buchans mining camp, including the age, structure and environment of deposition.

He has collaborated with exploration companies in the area who have welcomed his contributions. Recently, he has shifted his focus to a different environment, looking at copper deposits in the Bonavista Peninsula’s ancient sandstones.

In the relatively short time as a graduate student and practicing professional, John has published his research in nine government peer-reviewed articles, and had a dozen abstracts published, both nationally and internationally, based on his research. He is not yet 35 years old.

As a volunteer, John Hinchey has been President of the Society of Economic Geologists’ student chapter in Ottawa, and now serves on the Technical Program Committee of the local CIM annual conference. He was recently elected to the national council of the Geological Association of Canada.

Therefore, in recognition of his outstanding work in geoscience, Professional Engineers and Geoscientists Newfoundland and Labrador confers the Early Accomplishment Award on Dr. John Hinchey, P.Geo.

© Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland and Labrador