Adrian Smith Lecture Series

The Adrian Smith Lecture Series, an annual lecture in environmental geochemistry, was established in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo by colleagues and friends in memory of Dr. Adrian Smith. 

For more than a decade Adrian Smith was a regular visitor to our department, initially as guest speaker and later as an adjunct faculty member, a colleague and a supervisor to our students. Adrian generously gave his time, participating in technical discussions of thesis projects, providing comments and advice for improvements and fostering philosophical debates. These efforts are reflected in new approaches and attitudes that our students take toward research and science.

The Adrian Smith Lecture takes place every year in March.

2018 Adrian Smith Lecture

Thursday, April 19, 2018 - 2:00 PM | EIT 1015

Dr. Heather E. Jamieson, Queens University

"Using solid speciation to understand the complicated legacy of arsenic contamination near Yellowknife, NWT"

Biography

Heather E. Jamieson’s expertise is in the area of environmental geochemistry, particularly the mineralogical controls on the mobility and bioaccessibility of metals and metalloids such as arsenic, antimony, rare earth elements and lead in mine waste. She has pioneered the application of synchrotron-based X-ray experiments and other microanalytical methods to metal speciation in mine tailings, soils and sediments.  Dr. Jamieson was awarded the 2017 Peacock Medal from the Mineralogical Association of Canada which is given to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the mineral sciences in Canada. Much of her fieldwork is in the Canadian North but she has also conducted research in Nova Scotia, Chile, Peru, USA, Spain and Australia. She supervised more than 50 graduate students, most of whom are now working as environmental consultants or regulators. She has coedited and contributed a chapter to the Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry Volume 79: Arsenic: Environmental Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Microbiology.  

Past Adrian Smith lecturers

  • 2017: Alfonso Mucci,Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill University
  • 2016: John Cherry, University of Waterloo Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Adjunct Professor, University of Guelph and founder of the Adrian Lecture Series
  • 2015: Tom Johnson, Professor,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 2014: Dr. Peggy A. O'Day, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Univ. of California, Merced
  • 2013: Dr. Laurent Charlet, Professor, ISTerre (Institute of Earth Sciences), Univ. of Grenoble, France
  • 2012: Dr. Philippe Van Cappellen, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ecohydrology, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo
  • 2011: Dr. Kirk Nordstrom, Senior Hydrogeochemist, U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado
  • 2010: Dr. Michael Hochella Jr., Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech University
  • 2009: Dr. Kip Solomon, Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah
  • 2008: Dr. Lawrence Cathles, Earth & Atmos. Sciences, Cornell University
  • 2007: Dr. Geoffrey S. Plumlee, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado
  • 2006: Dr. John Jambor, Leslie Research & Cons., Tsawwassen, BC
  • 2005: Dr. Elizabeth Edwards, Dept. of Chemical Eng’ng, University of Toronto
  • 2004: Dr. W. Mike Edmunds, Oxford Centre for Water Res, University of Oxford, UK
  • 2003: Dr. Tullis C. Onstott, Dept. of Geosciences, Princeton University
  • 2002: Dr. Crayton Yapp, Dept. of Geological Sci., Dallas, Texas    
  • 2001: Dr. Gwendy E.M. Hall, Head, Analy.l Method Dev., Geological Survey of Canada
  • 2000: Dr. Warren Wood, Research Hydrogeologist, U.S. Geological Survey  
  • 1999: Dr. Ann Maest, V-P of Buka Environmental, Boulder, Colorado 
  • 1998: Dr. Heinrich D. Holland, Earth & Planetary Sciences, Harvard University 
  • 1997: Dr. Ian Ritchie, Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization