Dr. Henry Schwarcz

H.P. Schwarcz has made numerous and brilliant contributions to geochemistry, quaternary geology and archaeology. Oxygen, sulphur and carbon isotope ratios have been used to interpret the history of metamorphic rocks, sulphide ores and, more recently, cave deposits. The innovative analysis of speleotherm growth rings to measure past climatic temperature, when caves were forming, led him to search for a way to measure their age. This was achieved in the establishment of the first Canadian uranium-series dating laboratory, leading to a series of articles with students and collaborators (notably D.C. Ford) recording climate changes back through the Pleistocene. These successes led in turn to his current collaborations with archaeologists, measuring critical deposits and artifacts to establish an absolute time scale for human pre-history. He has a wide diversity of interests and brings a fertile creative mind and a warm human enthusiasm to all his activities.