RAQ Speaker Series May 2025

Please join us on March 27 for our RAQ speaker, Dr. Herb Helmstaedt

Department:   Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering

Date and Time: Tuesday, May 13, 2025, 1:00 – 2:00 pm

Title: Greenland - What makes it attractive to the MAGA movement?

We are delighted to have as our May speaker, geologist and Earth historian, Dr. Herwart (Herb) Helmstaedt who studied at Martin-Luther-University, Halle, and the University of Munich, in Germany, before coming to Canada where he completed his PhD at the University of New Brunswick. Before he came to Queen’s in 1974, he was a research associate at Lamont Geological Observatory of Columbia University, worked on the Geological Survey of Canada, and taught at McGill University. At Queen’s he taught structural geology and geo-tectonics and supervised more than 60 graduate students. His main research interests were Precambrian field studies in the Archean Slave and Superior provinces of the Canadian Shield, structural and tectonic controls of mineral deposits, and all things related to kimberlites and diamonds. He consulted widely, in Canada and abroad. In 1998 the Chief Geologist of the Danish-Greenland Geological Survey asked him to assess the Diamond Potential of Greenland. Consequently, in 1998 and 1999 he supervised the fieldwork of two students working under the sponsorship of the Greenland Survey. Through this he obtained insight into efforts in diamond exploration and other mineral exploration-related issues. He co-authored talks with the Greenlanders on the diamond potential of Greenland at a North-Atlantic Mineral deposits meeting and was a keynote speaker at a Greenland Diamond symposium in Copenhagen.