Revolutionary research

He studies the impact of cosmic rays on the Earth's surface, and has already received several prestigious awards, including the Killam Prize, and the Petro Canada Award for Young Innovators. Now, Dalhousie's Dr. John Gosse has been chosen as the 2006 recipient of the Geological Association of CanadaÕs W.W. Hutchison Medal.

The Medal is awarded to a young scientist for recent exceptional advances in Canadian earth science research. John Gosse is internationally known for his research in the field of geomorphology (the study of landforms), and is recognized as a world leader in the use of cosmogenic isotopes to investigate the rate of landscape evolution. Cosmogenic isotopes are formed at the earthÕs surface following complex interactions with high-energy particles originating from outer space.

Dr. Gosse holds the Canada Research Chair in Earth Systems Evolution at Dalhousie University, and is Director of the Cosmogenic Nuclide Extraction Facility at Dalhousie, the only such laboratory in Canada. At this facility, researchers led by Dr. Gosse employ Òcosmogenic exposure dating” of rock surfaces as a method of calculating how long a particular surface has been exposed to cosmic radiation. It has been compared to using the redness of someone's skin in order to estimate the duration of exposure to sunlight. A common application is to determine the time elapsed since glaciers last covered the earthÕs surface in a particular area. This newly emergent field has caused somewhat of a revolution in the fields of geomorphology and glacial history, and Dr. Gosse has been at the forefront since its inception, working both to develop the technique and to pioneer its application to a wide range of previously intractable scientific problems.

Dr. Gosse received his BachelorÕs degree in geology from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1989, and a Ph.D. from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in 1994. He served as an Assistant Professor of Geology and Director of the Cosmogenic Nuclide Extraction Laboratory at the University of Kansas from 1996-2001, before joining the faculty of Dalhousie University. He was employed as a research associate and scientific contractor by Los Alamos National Laboratory in the U.S.A., where he employed his specialty to help address the problem of nuclear waste disposal in the southwestern U.S.A.  Dr. Gosse is a recipient of the J. Ross Mackay Award of the Canadian Geomorphological Research Group (2003), the PetroCanada Young Innovators Award (2004), and the Kirk Bryan Award from the Geological Society of America (2005).

Dr. Gosse has brought his technique to bear on some classical long-standing problems in geomorphology, the solutions to which have been hampered by inadequate information about the rates at which geological processes at the earthÕs surface take place. Field studies have focused on the glacial history of the Rocky Mountains, weathering rates and exposure histories in the Torngat Mountains of Labrador, the history of glacial retreat in Atlantic and Arctic Canada, and landscape evolution at the Grand Canyon and in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

GAC Past President, Dr. Sandra Barr of Acadia University will present the medal to Dr. Gosse during the GAC award luncheon on Monday, May 15, 2006 at the annual GAC-MAC conference at the University of Quebec at Montreal.