Dr. Michael Hitch

Michael is a prominent researcher in sustainable mining, resource management, and geoscience education. His work life has been highly adventurous, having traversed some of the more remote and hostile parts of the globe. Now retired as dean of the faculty of science at the University of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, he continues his academic career as an adjunct professor at Queen's University and a professor at the Hanoi University of Mining and Geology in Vietnam.

Michael launched his career in international mining and has over forty years of experience in all aspects of the industry. He has travelled to more than 190 countries, opening mines in remote locations, including the Arctic, and collaborated with Indigenous peoples in the circumpolar north to negotiate the first impact agreement in Nunavut as it was becoming a territory.

Michael has held leadership positions worldwide, including head of school at the Western Australia School of Mines, director of the Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, and associate professor at the University of New South Wales and the University of British Columbia. Passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion, he continues supporting the next generation of scientists and explorers.