Francine McCarthy

Acceptance speech for the 2024 W.A. Johnston Medal

Je dois commencer par remercier tous ceux et celles qui m’ont supporté tout au long de ma carrière – telle que plusieurs précédents récipiendaires de ce prestigieux prix, notamment Mike Lewis et Anne de Vernal.

I would like to thank you for this tremendous and unexpected honour. It seems fitting that I should receive the WA Johnston Award here in Montreal, a few kilometres from where I was born, and 36 years since my predecessor at Brock, Jaan Terasmae, received it. I hope that our administration will see fit to hire another Quaternarist when I retire in a few years, given this recognition of our strength in Quaternary Science. It is the interdisciplinarity of our field – at the boundary between the physical and biological sciences, the natural and social sciences – that attracted me to it. It has let me explore a variety of issues and carry out diverse projects over the past four decades and it has taken me all over the world, allowing me to interact with a wide variety of people, from fellow academics to the press and members of the public – and even the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, to discuss the Anthropocene at the request of Pope Francis. I often feel like I am living in a Dr. Suess book – Oh the Places You’ll Go! I have been privileged to mentor many scientists – several of you who are in the room – and I encourage all of you to keep doing Quaternary Science, which the world needs now more than ever.