Claude Hillaire-Marcel FRSC (born April 1, 1944, in Salies-de-Béarn, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) is a Canadian geoscientist working in

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

research. He is known for his research on the environment, climate change, and

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

and professor at l'Université du Québec à Montréal.

Early life and education

Hillaire-Marcel was born and educated in France. He received advanced degrees at the Sorbonne in 1968, and the University of Paris in 1979.

Career

He moved to Canada and became a professor at l'Université du Québec à Montréal. From between 1970 and 2003, Claude Hillaire-Marcel authored or co-authored over 150 scientific papers. He supervised 20 doctoral dissertations and 37 M.Sc. and D.E.A. theses, and in addition he had 13 scientists working with him as postdoctoral fellows from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, the UK and the U.S. His early papers covered Pleistocene

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

fauna and isostatic rebound near Montreal. Later he broadened his geographic scope to include Ungava Bay and

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

. In 1976, he began writing about oxygen and carbon isotopes. By 1980 he was involved in dating studies utilizing isotopes of uranium and thorium. Between 1985 and 1991, Hillaire-Marcel participated in, or was chief scientist on various scientific marine expeditions, including six cruises on Canadian ships (CSS Dawson & CSS Hudson) and a cruise aboard the French research ship Marion-Dufresne in Greenland waters in 1999. In 1994, a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences featured Labrador Sea studies. Nine of the 12 articles were co-authored by Claude Hillaire-Marcel. In 2001, he was lead author on a paper in Nature entitled "Absence of deep-water formation in the Labrador Sea during the last interglacial period", and he was one of several authors of an EOS article entitled "New Record Shows Pronounced Changes in Arctic Ocean Circulation and Climate". Most of his work has been around the shores of Canada, but he has carried out field studies or been involved in research in Africa ( Algeria,

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Niger, Tanzania and Tunisia, the Middle East ( Israel and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, Latin America ( Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay), and Europe ( France, Greece and Spain (including the Balearic and Canary island. Hillaire-Marcel performs editorial duties for GpQ, CJES and QSR. Claude Hillaire-Marcel was the Founding Director (1981-1989, 1997–1999) of The Centre de recherche en géochimie et géodynamique, or GEOTOP. He served twice as Chairman of the Department of Earth Sciences at UQAM (1983-1985 and 1987–1989) Hillaire- Marcel has held two endowed chairs: from 1989 to 2000 the Industrial Chair Hydro-Québec- NSERC-UQAM and from 2000 on the International Chair UNESCO. Between 1977 and 2002 he co-authored 24 non-Quaternary scientific papers in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, and

physical exercise Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness. It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic ...

. One involved testing the authenticity of

maple syrup Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple tree ...

Committee memberships

Claude Hillaire-Marcel served on the following committees; the Royal Society of Canada,

Canadian Quaternary Association Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, International Union for Quaternary Research, Ocean Drilling Program, International Marine Global Change Study (IMAGES), the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), and the Joint Global Oceans Flux Studies (JGOFS). He is a member of the Consultative Committee for the Environment of Hydro-Québec, the Canadian Scientific Committee for the Integrated ODP, the Scientific Committee of the Institut du Sahel, and the executive committee of Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FONDS FCAR) and vice-president of the Sub-commission for the Americas of the INQUA Commission on Shorelines.

Awards and Distinctions

*1991- Made a Fellow of the

*2001- Awarded Prix Michel-Jurdant *2002- Received the prestigious

Prix Marie-Victorin The Prix Marie-Victorin is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, which "goes to researchers in the pure and applied sciences whose work lies in fields outside biomedicine. These fields include the natural and p ...

, the highest award in Quebec for scientific merit in the natural sciences and engineering. *2003- the

awarded him with the W.A. Johnston Medal *2005- Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

*2006- Awarded the Logan Medal, the

Geological Association of Canada The Geological Association of Canada (GAC) is a learned society that promotes and develops the Geology, geological sciences in Canada. The organization holds conferences, meetings and exhibitions for the discussion of geological problems and the ...

's highest honour

References

GAC Medals and Awards - 2006The American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillaire-Marcel, Claude 1944 births Living people People from Béarn Canadian geologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of Paris alumni Logan Medal recipients