The iMAGE-CREATE cluster includes ties to hundreds of scientists within Canada’s universities and at national laboratories such as the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC Ottawa, GSC Quebec, Pacific Geoscience Center). This community is providing iMAGE trainees with access to one of the largest concentrations of geoscience training capacity in North America.
iMAGE-CREATE is part of the long-established Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center (OCGC), which brings together Ottawa’s universities, GSC Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of Nature and local professionals, creating the largest graduate teaching and research program in Earth sciences in Canada, with more than 100 graduate students, 27 core faculty and 80 adjunct professors (Cousens and Hannington have both served as Directors). The university campuses are only fifteen minutes apart and a short distance to most federal research facilities.
OCGC offers programs leading to MSc and PhD degrees with emphasis in environmental geoscience, paleontology, isotope geochemistry, petrology, geomathematics/computing, mineral and petroleum resource geology, sedimentary systems and basin analysis, tectonics, geodynamics, seismic engineering and seismology and physical geography. The size of the Center and our location in the nation’s capital offer unique opportunities for collaborative research projects and training events (e.g., monthly OCGC Seminars).
Seven other Earth science departments with strong programs in natural resources, tectonics, and the environment are located within 500 km, including 4 mining schools (Harquail, Lassonde, Queen’s, École Polytechnique). To serve this community, OCGC and the Mineral Exploration Research Center (MERC) at Laurentian University established the Ontario Graduate Teaching Network in Minerals Geoscience, now an important instrument for professional skills development in Ontario. The courses in Ottawa have been attended by more than 700 students from across Canada and internationally and by professionals from 50 different companies. iMAGE-CREATE is adding courses to the network that are tailored directly to the project.