Michael Denis Higgins - CV
Personal
Home: Chicoutimi, Québec, CANADA
Born: 1952 in England.
Citizen: Britain and Canada.
Married with two children.
Languages: English (mother tongue), French (fluent), Spanish (basic).
Website: https:/mdhiggins.ca
E-mail: mhiggins@uqac.ca
Post-secondary education
BA: University of Cambridge, England, Geology/Chemistry, 1973
MSc: University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, Geophysics and Planetary
Physics, 1975.
PhD: McGill University, Montréal, Canada, Geology, 1980.
Academic employment history
Sept 1979 - May 1980: Sessional lecturer, University of Toronto.
Sept 1980 - May 1986: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Teaching fellow, Research
Associate, McMaster University.
June 1986 – Dec 2018: Professeur (niveau II, III, IV), Université du Québec
à Chicoutimi.
Jan 2019 – present: Professeur Émerite, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.
Research fields
Methods in quantitative textural analysis of rocks and materials
Methods in quantitative chemical analysis of rocks
Geology of industrial minerals – wollastonite and apatite
Software development in mineral identification
Regional geology and geochronology of southern Quebec.
Geology of the Sept Iles intrusive suite
Petrology of volcanic rocks in Chile, Montserrat, Iceland, Greece, New
Zealand, Canada, USA, India, UK
Petrology of plutonic rocks in Chile, Greenland, USA and Canada.
Geology and archaeology of Greece and Turkey
Geology of meteorite impact craters
Petrology of meteorites
Students supervised and co-supervised
6 PhD students
18 MSc students
20 BSc students – thesis and other projects
Courses taught at BSc, MSc and PhD levels
Applied chemistry for engineers
Introductory geology for engineers
Applied geophysics for geologists
Geological exploration geophysics
Stratigraphy
Geology of North America
Optical mineralogy
Applied Geochemistry
Exploration geochemistry
Introduction to geochemistry
Igneous petrology
Isotope geochemistry
Short courses on textural analysis
Ankara, Turkey, 2001
Santiago, Chile, 2012
Chieti, Italy, 2012
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2013
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015
Athens, Greece, 2017
Zagreb, Croatia 2017
Small-ship cruise lecturing
Eastern Mediterranean: Orpheus, Swan Hellenic, 1989
Eastern Atlantic Ocean, Antilles: Spirit of Adventure, Spirit of Adventure, 2007
Italy, Croatia: Aegean Odyssey, Voyages to Antiquity, 2010
Greece, Turkey: Aegean Odyssey, Voyages to Antiquity, 2012
Iceland, Jan Mayen, Svalbard: SH Vega, Swan Hellenic, spring 2023
Svalbard: SH Vega, Swan Hellenic, spring 2023
Greece, Turkey: SH Diana, Swan Hellenic, fall 2023
Greece, Turkey, Cyprus: SH Diana, Swan Hellenic, fall 2023
Los Angeles, Hawaii, French Polynesia: Silver Shadow, Silversea, winter 2025
Books
Higgins M.D. 2023. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: Science,
Engineering and Technology. Oxford University Press
Higgins, M.D. 2006. Quantitative Textural Measurements in Igneous and
Metamorphic Petrology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Higgins, M.D. and Higgins, R. 1996. A Geological companion to Greece and the
Aegean. Duckworth Publishers / Cornell University Press.