Graeme A. Spiers

I obtained a B.Sc. in Earth Science and Botany at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, retired from farming and obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Alberta, specializing in Pedology, Clay Mineralogy and Chemistry. After consulting in Western Canada, I was a Research Scientist at the University of Guelph for a few years before moving back west as Laboratory Supervisor with Envirotest in Saskatoon. I then migrated east as Operations Supervisor with Sudbury's Geoscience Laboratories in the 1990's, before traveling further east to be Department Head, Inorganic Analytical Chemistry at the Research and Productivity Council in Fredericton for a couple of years (1998 - 1999). My research has resulted in over 80 technical and scientific publications, as well as numerous presentations in analytical chemistry, aquatic chemistry, environmental geology, ecology, plant biology and soil science. Prior to attending university on a full-time basis, I was a New Zealand dairy farmer for 10 years, earning an undergraduate degree as a long-term hobby between milkings.

I am also Director of the Elliot Lake Research Field Station (ELRFS) at Laurentian University, having spent 12 years from 2000 as the Director, Centre for Environmental Monitoring, The Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation (MIRARCo), the technology transfer group located at Laurentian University. My ongoing research initiatives examine the effects of both historical and current anthropogenic metal emissions on soils, rivers and lakes, as well as vegetation within the Sudbury Smelter Footprint. With an active interest in Technosol development in Land Reclamation on the impacted lands of the mineral industry, I am also involved in a wide variety of research programs across Canada, and actively collaborates with researchers in Russia (Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences), Australia, New Zealand, China and South Africa.