Presentation
Geotop was founded in 1974 by researchers from the Earth Sciences department at UQAM as a mass spectrometry facility, originally called the Centre de recherche en Géochimie isotopique et en Géochronologie. It obtained its first infrastructure support grant from the Fonds pour la Formation des Chercheurs et l’Aide à la Recherche (FCAR) shortly after its creation.
Since then, with funding from the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the UQAM Foundation and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Geotop has acquired many mass spectrometers and other state-of-the-art laboratory instruments.
Today, GEOTOP is a research and graduate training centre which is officially as a strategic grouping by the Fonds Québecois de la Recherche sur la Nature et les Technologies (FQRNT). Geotopincludes more than 30 professors-researchers interested in the Earth planetary system, who have training in Geology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Geophysics. These researchers come from UQAM, McGill University, Concordia University, INRS-Eau,Terre et Environnement, ISMER (UQAR) and Université Laval.
At a time when issues concerning the Earth are becoming increasingly complex, requiring multidisciplinary approaches, Geotop is actively contributing to the training of future scientists through the collective sharing of expertise and resources, allowing for leading edge research in the field and in the laboratory. Dr. Anne de Vernal is currently the director of Geotop.
Geotop is funded by:
- Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT)
- Université du Québec à Montréal
- Université McGill
- Université Concordia
Geotop projects and researchers are supported by:
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
- Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS)
- Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies (FQRNT)
- Canada Council for the Arts
- Canadian Geological Foundation
- Fonds de développement académique du réseau (FODAR)
Geotop's partners are:
- Hydro-Québec
- Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune du Québec
- St. Lawrence Centre
- Canadian Space Agency
- Geological Survey of Canada
Geotop takes part in the following programmes and networks:
- Observatories for Lithospheric Analysis and Research Investigating Seismicity (Polaris Consortium)
- Greenland Lithosphere Analysed Teleseismically on the Ice Sheet (GLATIS)
- Canadian High Arctic Seismic Monitoring Experiment (CHASME)
- Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)
- International Marine Past Global Change Study (IMAGES)
- International Polar Year (IPY)
- PromoScience
- International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP)
- ArcticNet