The W.W. Hutchison Medal is named after Dr. William W. Hutchison in recognition of his many contributions to Canadian and international geoscience. The medal is awarded to a young individual for recent exceptional advances in Canadian earth science research.
2024 W.W. Hutchison Medalist
Dr. Chris Spencer (Queen’s University)
Dr. Chris Spencer is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering at Queen’s University. He has made outstanding contributions to understanding the formation, destruction, and secular evolution of the continental crust and the tectonic processes responsible. His research is underpinned by fieldwork, followed by detailed geochemical and isotopic analyses of strategically selected samples. His long-term goals are to deduce the igneous petrology, geochemistry, and geochronology of key rock formations in order to understand orogenic processes and secular changes in those processes over 4.5 billion years of Earth history.
By focusing on the behaviour and abundances of stable and radiogenic isotopes, he has become a world leader in the field of tectonochemistry. He has shown how igneous geochemistry can be used as a tracer for tectonic processes, how these processes change over time, and how they interact and co-evolve with the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere.
His research has provided first order insights into many large-scale to global-scale processes including: (i) the fate of subducted sediment, how melts derived from subducted sediment affect the composition of the asthenosphere and are recorded in ophiolite complexes, (ii) interactions between the lithosphere and atmosphere across the Archean-Proterozoic transition, which includes the investigation of the potential linkages between mantle dynamics, emergence of continents above sea-level, flux of nutrients into the oceans, and evolution of the biosphere, (iii) the mechanisms of continental growth and destruction, including a critical analysis of the role of plate tectonic processes in the Archean, and (iv) secular changes in tectonic processes, by comparing relatively recent orogens (e.g. Himalaya) with ancient orogens (e.g. the 1 Ga Grenville, 2.5 Ga Kenoran) and evaluating how the higher Proterozoic and Archean mantle temperatures influenced tectonic stresses processes.
Check out the 2024-2025 Hutchison Lecture Tour!
The deadline for National Medal nomination forms is January 5th, 2024.
Previous Award Winners
2023 Jamie Kirkpatrick
2022 Britta Jensen
2021 Vincent van Hinsberg
2020 Shahin Dashtgard
2019 Brian Kendall
2018 Gordon Osinski
2017 Christie Rowe
2016 Stephen Piercey
2015 Murray Gingras
2014 Ali Polat
2013 Duane Froese
2012 Galen Halverson
2011 Anton Chakhmouradian
2010 Octavian Catuneanu
2009 Michael Caldwell
2008 James MacEachern
2007 Jeremy Richards
2006 John Gosse
2005 Alan J. Anderson
2004 Shoufa Lin