Michael Lesher

Carl Michael Lesher (born 1951) is an American-Canadian geologist. He is an authority on the geology and origin of nickel-copper-platinum group element deposits, especially those associated with komatiites, their physical volcanology and localization, the geochemistry and petrology of associated rocks, and controls on their composition.

Lesher was born in Indianapolis Indiana USA but has been living and working in Canada beginning in 1975 and continuously since 1997. He holds BSc and MA degrees in Geology from Indiana University and a PhD degree in Geology from the University of Western Australia. Between 1975 and 1979 he worked as an Exploration Geologist and Mineralogist for the Iron Ore Company of Canada, between 1982 and 1984 he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the J. Tuzo Wilson Research Laboratories of the University of Toronto, and between 1984 and 1997 he was Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Economic Geology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In 1997 he was appointed Professor of Economic Geology, NSERC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Mineral Exploration, and Founding Director of the Mineral Exploration Research Centre at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. He served as Chairman of the Department of Earth Sciences between 2003 and 2006, and as Director of Mining Initiatives (founding the School of Mines) during 2010-2011. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (1989 and 1991) and the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University (1990), an Honourary Professor at the Chengdu University of Technology (2000), and a Visiting Professor at Indiana University (2002-2003). Between 1998 and 2002 he was Leader of International Geological Correlation Program Project 427 Ore-Forming Processes in Dynamic Magmatic Systems and in 2010 was Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 11th International Platinum Symposium.

Lesher has authored or co-authored over 350 scientific publications, and has served on the Editorial Boards of Mineralogical Abstracts (1987-1988), the The Canadian Mineralogist (1989-1991), Reviews in Economic Geology (1993-1998), and Mineralium Deposita (2010-present). In addition to his research he has consulted for mining companies in Australia, Canada, Finland, and the USA.

Honours and awards

Lesher has been awarded the Duncan R. Derry Medal (2007) from the Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada, and co-awarded the Julian Boldy Award (2002) by the Geological Association of Canada, and the Wardell Armstrong Prize (2009) by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. He has served as a Society of Economic Geologists Thayer-Lindsley Visiting Lecturer (1998-1999) and as a Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy University Lecturer (1997-1998). He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists, the Geological Society of America, and the Geological Association of Canada.

Frequently cited publications

• 2009, Lesher, C.M., and Barnes, S.J., Komatiite-Associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) Deposits, in C. Li and E.M. Ripley (Editors), Magmatic Ni-Cu-PGE Deposits: Genetic Models and Exploration, Geological Publishing House of China, p. 27-101
• 2008, N.T. Arndt, C.M. Lesher, and S.J. Barnes, Komatiite, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 488 pp., ISBN 978-0-521-87474-8
• 2007, Lesher, C.M., Ni-Cu-(PGE) Deposits in the Raglan Area, Cape Smith Belt, New Québec, in Goodfellow, W.D. (Editor), Mineral Resources of Canada: A Synthesis of Major Deposit-types, District Metallogeny, the Evolution of Geological Provinces, and Exploration Methods, Geological Survey of Canada and Mineral Deposits Division of the Geological Association of Canada Special Publication, p. 351-386
• 2005, Arndt, N.T., Lesher, C.M., and Czamanske, G.K., Mantle-derived magmas and magmatic Ni-Cu-(PGE) deposits, 100th Anniversary Volume, Society of Economic Geologists, p. 5-23
• 2002, Lesher, C.M., and Keays, R.R., Komatiite-Associated Ni-Cu-(PGE) Deposits: Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Genesis, in L.J. Cabri (Editor), The Geology, Geochemistry, Mineralogy, and Mineral Beneficiation of the Platinum-Group Elements, Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, Special Volume 54, p. 579-617
• 2001, Lesher, C.M., and Burnham, O.M., Multicomponent elemental and isotopic mixing in Ni-Cu-(PGE) ores at Kambalda, Western Australia. Canadian Mineralogist, v. 39, p. 421-446
• 1989, Lesher, C.M., 1989, Komatiite-associated nickel sulfide deposits, Chapter 5 in J.A., Whitney and A.J. Naldrett (Editors), Ore Deposition Associated with Magmas, Reviews in Economic Geology v. 4, Economic Geology Publishing Company, El Paso, p. 45-101
• 1986, Lesher, C.M., Goodwin, A.M., Campbell, I.H., and Gorton, M.P., Trace element geochemistry of ore-associated and barren felsic metavolcanic rocks in Superior Province, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 23, p. 222-237

References

• Personal Webpage
• LinkedIn Profile
• Zoom Info Profile
• Derry Citation in Gangue
• Laurentian University re Derry Award

External links

• Duncan Derry Medal Awardees
• Thayer Lindsley Lecturers