B.Sc. (1st class Honours), Geology, University of Manitoba, 1999
M.Sc., Geology, University of Manitoba, 2002
Ph.D., Geosciences, University of Arizona, 2007
FCGmA (Fellow of the Canadian Gemmological Association), 2009

Kimberly Tait is a Curator of Mineralogy and oversees mineralogical, gemmological and meteoritic research at the ROM. She is also a cross-appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto.

Before Kim could even spell the word “geologist”, she knew that was what she wanted to be when she grew up. Picking up rocks and minerals and bringing them home for her own collection, and even asking her father to pull the car over on the side of the road to look at rocks was not uncommon, even at a very young age. When she was 10 years old, her family moved to Hamilton, Ontario and a geologist and micro-mount collector lived down the street. He would take her collecting, showed her his mineral collection, and even gave her a Mineral encyclopedia signed “To the Future Mineralogist”.

Kim started studying geology at the University of Manitoba, and although many of aspects of geology interested her, her 2nd year mineralogy course definitely stuck out as her favorite. It gave her the opportunity to learn about different types of minerals, how to identify them, and the chemical formulas that apply to each of them.

Kim's research has led to publications on new mineral structures and the nomenclature of mineral groups. She has worked on the alluaudite-group minerals, a group of phosphate and arsenate minerals that were poorly characterized. She is also interested in non-ambient mineralogy, such as high-pressure and low- or high-temperature phases, using both neutron and X-ray diffraction and scattering techniques. A majority of her research for her Ph.D was performed at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE), which is a major experimental science facility located in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Several of her experiments at LANSCE were on materials that either form or change properties at extreme conditions, such as gas hydrates and some sulfate minerals that are expected to form on the surface of Mars. She also performs experiments at the Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Illinois. Typically, the experiments at the APS are at high-pressure (10-80 GPa) and use a diamond anvil cell to simulate how the crystal-structure (atomic make-up of a mineral) will behave under such conditions. This kind of research will help us better understand the dynamics and structure of the Earth and other planetary interiors.

Kim was also a coordinator of the ROM exhibit Water: The Exhibition, an innovative show that illustrates the indispensable roles that water plays in our world.

Other Links

• University of Toronto Geology Faculty Page
• RRUFF project, University of Arizona
• The Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE)

B.A. (Honours), Physical Geography, University of Windsor, 1992
B.Sc. (Honours), Geology & Geochemistry, University of Windsor, 1996
FCGmA Gemmology, Canadian Gemmological Association, final exam pending

Katherine Dunnell is a mineralogy technician in the Department of Natural History.

Katherine's original passion was medicine, but after a year of university spent touching ‘slimy’ things, she decided inorganic sciences were much more appealing. Geology really appealed to her because it is the most tactile of all the sciences, so she switched to an undergraduate program in physical geography.

In between academic years, she spent two summers with the Ontario Geological Survey (OGS), working as a junior mapper and living in northern Ontario. From her experiences in the ‘bush’, Katherine gained a better appreciation for the beauty of the unspoiled north, the ability to cook a roast over an open fire, and a huge distain for black flies. She also worked two summers at the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, dredging up mud and sediment samples from Lake Erie and collecting zebra mussels to analyze in the accredited lab. Her studies there focused around where the heavy metals were concentrated within the sediments, and whether they were bioavailable.

Katherine's appreciation for museums was instilled during her childhood, with frequent visits to the ROM and McLaughlin Planetarium, as well as the Detroit Institute of Art. She joined the ROM in 1997, and since then has participated in the development of several exhibitions, including: The Black Star Sapphire of Queensland (2007); Italian Arts & Design: The 20th Century (2006); Pearls: A Natural History (2005); and Our Crystalline World, It’s Many Faces (2004-Greater Toronto Area Authority (GTAA) exhibition program). She was also a member of the Gallery Development Team for the ROM's Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth's Treasures, and the exhibit, The Nature of Diamonds. .

Katherine is a frequent speaker at ROM events and to external groups with an interest in mineralogy. Gems and jewellery remain her focus and passion.

BASc., Geological Engineering, University of Toronto, 1973

Vincent Vertolli is an Assistant Curator of Geology in the Department of Natural History.

Upon graduation from university in 1973, Vincent worked for the Geological Survey of Canada, the Ontario Geological Survey, and with the University of Toronto as a research assistant. A main component of all three positions was field-based research, which meant spending roughly half the year, from mid-May to mid-October, in remote areas identifying and mapping the rocks of the Canadian Precambrian Shield. Vincent was involved with projects that took him to the famous mining camps of the Timmins-Kirkland Lake area, Sudbury, north-western Ontario and northern Manitoba.

It was while completing a research project at the University of Toronto in 1978 that Vincent was approached by the then-Head of the ROM’s Geology Department, Dr. Sydney B. Lumbers, who invited him to join the department and become involved in a new, long-term research program in the little-understood Grenville Province of the Canadian Precambrian Shield in Ontario. The Grenville Province occupies much of southern and central Ontario and is most familiar to the general public, especially those who live in south-western Ontario, as “Cottage Country”. Much of this area was previously unmapped and was referred to, even in geology text books, simply as a ”Sea-of-Gneisses”. Vincent accepted the position and along with his new ROM colleagues, began field mapping in Renfrew County along the banks of the Ottawa River in 1978. By the mid 1990s, they had mapped areas across the province as far as the shores of Georgian Bay.

One result of this long-term research and field work has been the publication of 25 geological maps that show the different types of rocks and their distribution throughout this area of the Grenville Province. These maps not only benefit ROM Geologists' research, but also that of other geologists from industry, government and universities interested in petrology, tectonics, crustal evolution, the search for mineral deposits, and environmental and land-use studies. Six of these maps, which are the first comprehensive geological maps available that cover the famous Muskoka region of Ontario, are listed below.

Vincent was actively involved in developing the ROM's new Teck Suite of Galleries: Earth's Treasures, which opened in December of 2008. He is responsible for the curation of the ROM’s Petrology Collections and continues his research on the Grenville Province.