Dr. Sandra M. Barr is a professor in the Department of Earth and
Environmental Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She
is originally from St. Stephen, New Brunswick, completed her BSc with
honours in geology at the University of New Brunswick in 1968, and her
PhD in geology at the University of British Columbia in 1973. After
1.5 years of post-doctoral work at Dalhousie University and Bedford
Institute of Oceanography, in Halifax/Dartmouth NS, she taught at Chiang Mai University in
northern Thailand for two years as a CUSO volunteer. She returned to
Canada in 1976 to assume a faculty position in the Department of
Geology at Acadia University, and was promoted to associate professor
in 1980 and full professor in 1986. She currently teaches courses in
introductory geology, igneous petrology, global tectonics, geological
mapping, and Appalachian geology, and during her career has supervised
more than 100 undergraduate and graduate thesis projects.
Dr. Barr's research
is focused on the geological evolution of the northern Appalachian
mountain belt of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, with strong emphasis
on field mapping. She also has had projects in Labrador and Thailand.
In 1995, she was awarded the Gesner Medal of the Atlantic Geoscience
Society in recognition of her contributions to the geosciences in
Atlantic Canada. Over the years, her research work and that of her
students has been funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering
Research Council of Canada, the Geological Survey of Canada through
Federal-Provincial research agreements, NATMAP, and TGI projects,
the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Departments of Natural Resources,
and various industry contracts. Dr. Barr has over 160 publications
in peer-reviewed research journals, as well as hundreds of other publications, including book
chapters, government reports,
maps,
open files, field trip guides, and conference presentations.
In 2015, she co-authored a popular book on the Geology of Nova
Scotia, published by Boulder Publications, followed in 2020 by a
similar book on the Geology of New Brunswick and Prince Edward
Island by the same publisher.
She is also
active in the Canadian earth science community, and has served on
numerous committees, including the NATMAP Coordination Committee
(1998-2002) and the NSERC Grant Selection Committee for Solid Earth
Sciences (1994-1997). She was a member of the Canadian delegation to
International Geological Congresses in Kyoto (1992) and Beijing
(1996). She has been co-editor of the Atlantic Geoscience Society
journal "Atlantic Geology" (now Atlantic Geoscience) since 1986. She served as a member of the
Local Organizing Committee for the Wolfville 1992 and Halifax 1980
and 2005
GAC-MAC meetings. She co-chaired the organizing committee for the
GAC-MAC-CSPG-IAH meeting in Halifax in May 2022, for which she and
co-chair Rob Raeside were given the Nelly Koziel Award for their
"significant contribution to geoscience, beyond the call of duty, in
the Atlantic Provinces" by the atlantic Geoscience Society in
February 2022. During
2004-2005, she was President of the Geological Association of
Canada, and was
the GAC Books Editor until 2020. She served successively as
president-elect, president, and past-president of the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences from 2013-2019. In 2015, Dr. Barr
received the prestigious Ambrose Medal from the Geological
Association of Canada for sustained and dedicated service to the
Earth science community in Canada. In 2020 she was inducted into
Nova Scotia Science Hall of Fame, and in 2021 she received the
Mentorship Medal of the Canadian Federation of Earth Sciences "for
her role in training several generations of geology students, and
her contributions to the advancement of the geological understanding
of the northern Appalachians in Atlantic Canada".
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