The following citation was prepared and presented by G. Beaudoin (SGA President):
The SGA-Barrick Young Scientist Award is offered biennially to a young scientist who contributed significantly to the understanding of mineral deposits. The award is based mainly upon senior-authored papers published early in the candidate‘s career. To be eligible for this award, the awardee must be less than 40 years in January in the year of the SGA Biennial Meeting. I am most pleased to introduce to you, Dr. Huayong Chen, the winner of the 2015 SGA-Barrick Young Scientist Award.
Huayong Chen received his B.S and MS in Geology and Geochemistry from Peking University in Beijing and his PhD in Economic Geology at Queens University in 2008. He was a Research Fellow at CODES University of Tasmania from 2008 until he joined the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2012.
Huayong has a rather remarkable research publication record for someone only at the start of a promising career. He has almost 50 peer-reviewed papers published or accepted. Some are in leading Chinese journals, but many are in leading western journals, including Economic Geology, Mineralium Deposita, Ore Geology Reviews, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Geological Journal, Gondwana Research,Lithos and the Geological Magazine. He has contributed substantially to the field of economic geology, with emphasis on iron oxide copper-gold deposits, but he also published on orogenic and epithermal gold deposits and porphyry copper-gold deposits.
Huayong’s selection for the SGA-Barrick Young Scientist Award is evident from the important head-authored papers considered for this award. Huayong made a major contribution to the understanding of IOCG deposits based on his fundamental research work in Peru where he addressed some of the long-standing problems in the genesis of these deposits. His research on the Marcona-Mina Justa deposits, published in Mineralium Deposita, is a major contribution to the understanding of the magmatic-hydrothermal system that characterizes this complex and unusual Andean ore system. The relationship between
“Kiruna-type” magnetite-apatite deposits, which are barren with respect to copper and gold, and economic copper-gold bearing IOCG deposits was studied in a district where both deposit types are present. His clarification of the independent origins of these spatially associated ores was presented in publications in Mineralium Deposita and Economic Geology.
In Ore Geology Reviews, Huayong subsequently proposed a new classification for the IOCG class that is based on the role and sources of sulfur. More recently, Huayong has stepped back and nicely looks at the big picture, relating the Andean IOCG metallogeny to patterns of supercontinent history in his 2013 Economic Geology publication. A paper in Ore Geology Reviews further highlights his contributions to our knowledge of this difficult to understand group of ores by trying to address many of the outstanding problems in IOCG classification.
Furthermore, Huayong is extremely involved with the international geological community through presentations of numerous workshops and lectures at professional meetings. He is actively involved with the SGA, now serving as the SGA Regional Vice President for Asia and in 2016, Huayong will assume the leadership for the highly successful SEG-SGA “Ore Deposit Model and Mineral Exploration” workshops held each year in China.
SGA expects the SGA Barrick Young Scientist Award to Huayong Chen will just be an early step in a long and successful career.
Congratulations to Huayong Chen.
The following acceptance speech was delivered by Huayong Chen:
Thanks to SGA, without SGA, no this award and I cannot stand here. Thanks to Barrick, without you, no money, which is sad for a young economic geologist. Thanks to my nominator: Dr. Dave Leach who gave me lots of courage and help during application. Also thanks to my three referees: Dr. Rich Goldfarb, Dr. Dave Cooke and Dr. Noel White. They have used their best words for me although I can only give back to them a big hug.
During my short academic life (not very short if count from my first year entering university), there are many people giving me abundant selfless help. Although I cannot mention all of them (which will take me hours to do this), I want to address four people here and show many thanks.
Professor Yanjing Chen, who was my supervisor for my bachelor and master thesis study in Peking University, is my first “ talent scout”, without him, I don’t even know what’s economic geology and why we need to study ore deposits (now I often ask my students this question). After I finished my master thesis study, I went to Queen’s University in Canada for a further Ph.D. study and met my two supervisors, Prof. Alan Clark and Kurt Kyser. I have to
say, they are two totally different person, the most distinguished difference between them is:
Alan is English and Kurt is American. This is the first time I see how different between
English and American, before this, I thought they should be the same language and both
imperialist countries. Alan is very strict to his students, if you don’t believe, you can ask Dr.
Dick Sillitoe, who was his first Ph.D. student. Anyway, I spent 6.5 years to get Ph.D. from
Alan and our head of department told me: “Congratulations, you finally survived from Alan”.
I still remember the last comments from Alan, to my acknowledgements in my Ph.D. thesis,
in which I said “Alan used his sharp axe to open my granite brain in this 6.5 years”, Alan
commenced: “it’s a little bloody, but I like it”. I have to say, this is the most “polite” comment
I ever got from Alan. Kurt is different; he didn’t use sharp axe, but money and sweet hart.
Especially during my last 3 years for Ph.D. without Kurt’s financial help, I may have to drop
from university. Thanks to Prof. Alan Clark and Kurt Kyser, without you, nobody in
economic geology field today will know my name. My Ph.D. study at Queen’s is my most
important period in my life. The last but not the least, I want say great thanks to Prof. Dave
Cooke, who is my big boss during my work as a postdoc at CODES, University of Tasmania.
Dave is probably the most generous and considerate economic geology professor I have ever seen. Especially when I got the current professor position in China but the contract with UTAS not finished yet, he kindly helped me to get this job but not stop me or kill me (even he can easily do this). Honestly speaking, I don’t like my postdoc to do this to me because I am not Dave.
Thanks to all people who have given me help in my young academic life. This award is very important for me even I know I am not perfect. Chinese old saying said “no the best, only better”. I am probably not the best, but I promise I will do better in the future.
Thank you