Sedimentary and petroleum geology chair receives funding from Shell Canada

Montreal, QC – March 22, 2004 – The Faculty of Science at McGill University says it has received a major donation of C$300,000 from Shell Canada toward the establishment of the TH Clark chair in sedimentary and petroleum geology.

Shell’s donation is the largest corporate pledge toward creating the $1.5 million chair. Named after one of McGill’s leading educators in earth and planetary sciences, Thomas H Clark, the new position will be endowed with both teaching and research responsibilities in areas of interest to Canada’s growing oil and gas industry.

“We are committed to providing our students with the best possible education. This new position will add further depth and dimension to the already outstanding quality of education our students receive, helping to equip them for success in the field,” says Alan Shaver, dean of the university’s Faculty of Science.

Establishment of the chair will support the department to further strengthen and diversify its sedimentary geology program. The department’s new facility, the McGill Subsurface Research Laboratory, is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the geologic interpretation of seismic and other subsurface data.

Throughout his career, Thomas H Clark made fundamental contributions to sedimentary geology and paleontology. He gave his last public lecture in 1990 at the age of 97 in the Redpath Museum on the subject of the Burgess Shale.