Stewart Blusson is a Vancouver geologist who co-discovered Canada’s first diamond mine in the Northwest Territories in the early 1990s and has since become one of the most generous philanthropists in Canadian history.
His donations include more than $100 million to fund Canadian medical research and education, including a record $12 million to SFU to support work in its new Faculty of Health Sciences. Archon Minerals Ltd., Blusson’s Vancouver diamond company, is also the sponsor of the Archon X Prize for Genomics. The US$10-million prize will be awarded to a team with a device that can sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days.
Blusson completed an undergraduate degree at UBC (1960) and a doctorate in geology at the University of California, Berkeley (1964). After school, he spent the next 15 years with the Geological Survey of Canada, leading regional geological mapping and research programs in the central Yukon and northern B.C. During that time, he survived a serious helicopter crash and a Grizzly bear attack and, in 1969, he piloted a helicopter to rescue his future prospecting partner Chuck Fipke, who was stranded in the wilderness for almost a week. The pair went on to discover one of the world’s largest diamond fields, eventually establishing the Ekati diamond mine. Their discovery led Canada to become the third most valuable diamond-mining country.
His donations include more than $100 million to fund Canadian medical research and education, including a record $12 million to SFU to support work in its new Faculty of Health Sciences. Archon Minerals Ltd., Blusson’s Vancouver diamond company, is also the sponsor of the Archon X Prize for Genomics. The US$10-million prize will be awarded to a team with a device that can sequence 100 human genomes within 10 days.
Blusson completed an undergraduate degree at UBC (1960) and a doctorate in geology at the University of California, Berkeley (1964). After school, he spent the next 15 years with the Geological Survey of Canada, leading regional geological mapping and research programs in the central Yukon and northern B.C. During that time, he survived a serious helicopter crash and a Grizzly bear attack and, in 1969, he piloted a helicopter to rescue his future prospecting partner Chuck Fipke, who was stranded in the wilderness for almost a week. The pair went on to discover one of the world’s largest diamond fields, eventually establishing the Ekati diamond mine. Their discovery led Canada to become the third most valuable diamond-mining country.
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