Saint Mary's

Dr. Jacob Hanley is Chairperson for the Department of Geology and an Associate Professor at Saint Mary's. As Head of the Mineral Exploration and Ore Fluids Laboratory at Saint Mary’s, his group’s research mandate is the application of microanalytical techniques to the characterization of metallic mineral deposits and development of novel exploration criteria, with a focus on fluid and melt inclusion microanalysis. Techniques used include laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS), Raman spectroscopy, and microthermometry.

Dr. Hanley’s specialization in ore deposits began with graduate work documenting aspects of the Sudbury magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE deposits and has expanded, since then, to encompass a broad range of field-based studies and method development. Lauded as one of the world’s top young scientists working in the broad field of ore deposit geology, he is also interested in the application of microanalytical methods across scientific disciplines. His research has resulted in significant contributions to knowledge ranging from mineral deposit potential in Canada, the United States, and South Africa, to the application of new analytical techniques in archaeology to understand where indigenous peoples in northeastern North American obtained metals prior to contact with Europeans.

Working with students is a priority for Dr. Hanley. Highly regarded as a teacher and mentor, he has supervised more than 40 undergraduate and graduate thesis projects during his 10 years at Saint Mary’s. With his guidance, Geology students have produced papers on topics ranging from deposit specific studies and thematic research on fluid and melt inclusions to the ore mineralogy and stable isotope systematics of ore-forming systems. Often driven by a search for mineral vectors, this research has real application to future discoveries.

In addition to his regular teaching assignments at Saint Mary’s, Dr. Hanley has volunteered to present numerous short courses on topics ranging from scientific writing and designing research programs, to forensic archeology, fluid inclusions, and applications of LA-ICP-MS to solving first order problems in geology, archaeology and geobiology. His scholarly contributions include over 40 refereed publications in peer-reviewed journals and books, including the Journal of Geochemical Exploration, Economic Geology, Journal of Petrology, Mineralium Deposita, and the AAPG Bulletin. A popular lecturer and keynote speaker, he has spoken at conferences, lectures, meetings and seminars around the globe.

Dr. Hanley received his B.Eng. (1999), M.Sc. (Earth Sciences, 2001), and Ph.D. (Geochemistry, 2005) from the University of Toronto and was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) postdoctoral fellow at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland from 2005 to 2007. In 2016, Dr. Hanley received the 2016 Mineralogical Association of Canada (MAC) Young Scientist Award. Other honours include the William Harvey Gross Medal from the Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada (GAC) in 2011 and GAC Howard Street Robinson Lecturer in 2013.

Dr. Jacob Hanley's Affiliation

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