Memorial students Kazuhito Mizutani and Nathan Ash have each received a $3,000 scholarship from the Canadian Mining, Metallurgy (CIM) and Petroleum Newfoundland Branch.

Mr. Mizutani is a fourth-year earth sciences undergraduate student. He received the branch’s Silver Jubilee Scholarship, created in 1978 to celebrate the organization’s 25th anniversary. The award is available to students in their final or penultimate year in earth sciences at Memorial University.

Mr. Mizutani is working on an honours dissertation related to the absorption of heavy metals from acid mine drainage. He has a great interest in environmental geology, paleontology, chemistry, and other natural sciences and plans to continue on to a graduate degree in an area of geoscience.

Recently, he gave a presentation on this topic at the Atlantic Universities Geoscience Conference for which he was awarded the Atlantic Geoscience Society Environmental Geoscience Award.

Mr. Ash is in his final year of a mechanical engineering degree. He received the branch’s Golden Jubilee Scholarship, created in 2003 to recognize the organization’s 50th anniversary. The award is given to a student majoring in studies related to the fields of interest of CIM, specifically earth sciences, geophysics, geography, economics, environmental science, engineering, business and commerce.

Mr. Ash was happily surprised when he heard he had won and said the scholarship is about much more than the financial support.

“It means a lot to be recognized for my academic achievements, especially by a national organization involved with industry as the CIM,” he said.

“Knowing that an organization consisting of industry professionals is investing in our graduates here at MUN and that I was a direct recipient of this investment was very special. Receiving an award like this also helps to relieve the stress of covering my costs like tuition, rent and other expenses throughout the year. I am very thankful to the CIM for their gift and investment in my future and hope that their generosity continues to help other students and celebrate their accomplishments for many years to come.”

The awards were presented recently in St. John’s at the Mineral Resources Review by Praveen Jha, president, CIM, Newfoundland and Labrador Branch, and vice-president, operations, Tata Steel Minerals Canada.

Other earth science students who received recognition at the Mineral Resources Review include Nicholas Lynch, Beatriz Lombeida and Omar Saleh, who received tickets for a trip to the Tata Steel Minerals mine in Menihek North, near Schefferville, Que.; and Jessica Hawco, Lauren Hayes and Shannon Broughm, who all won cash prizes for participating in a Twitter treasure hunt.