SOCORRO, N.M. – Nicole Hurtig, Ph.D., assistant professor of geochemistry in New Mexico Tech’s Department of Earth and Environmental Science, recently received the 2022 Brian J. Skinner Award for an outstanding paper published in the Economic Geology journal. The journal is published by the Society of Economic Geologists, an international organization based in Littleton, Colorado, that includes representatives from industry, academia, and government institutions. 

The Brian J. Skinner Award recognizes the most innovative and original paper appearing in any of the eight issues of a single volume of the journal. Papers are judged on technical excellence, innovation, and impact on the science of economic geology. 

Dr. Hurtig and her co-authors say “they are honored to receive such a prestigious award and are grateful to the editorial team, the reviewers, and many of their colleagues who have contributed to their research.” Dr. Hurtig co-authored the publication, titled “Are Vapor-Like Fluids Viable Ore Fluids for Cu-Au-Mo Porphyry Ore Formation?”, with Dr. Artis A. Migdisov and Dr. Anthony E. Williams-Jones.

This publication provides a new thermodynamic model to predict metal solubility in compressible fluids at elevated temperature and pressure providing insight into the important role of vapor transport of metals and its relations to metal ratios in porphyry-type ore deposits. According to Dr. Hurtig, outcomes and applications of this research will significantly influence future exploration strategies for this important ore deposit type, which provides crucial resources of Cu (copper), Mo (molybdenum), and Au (gold), and might also be a future resource for Te (tellurium) and Re (rhenium) – critical elements needed for the green energy transition. 

Dr. Hurtig earned a bachelor of science degree in Earth sciences and a master of science degree in geology and geochemistry with a thesis in mineral resources from ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). She earned her doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in geochemistry with a thesis in experimental high-temperature geochemistry.

Dr. Hurtig’s research has focused on hydrothermal and geothermal fluids, ore deposits, and trace metal systematics in petroleum systems combining experimental geochemistry with numerical simulations and applications to natural systems. She has worked as a field geologist in Switzerland (2006) digitizing groundwater maps, in Australia (2007) exploring for uranium, and as a researcher at the University of Iceland (2009) sampling active geothermal systems and compiling thermodynamic data. After completing her doctorate, Dr. Hurtig moved on to be a postdoctoral fellow with the AIRIE program at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, for four years, where she studied Re-Os isotope and trace metal systematics of water-oil interaction applied to petroleum systems. In 2019, Dr. Hurtig took a research assistant professor position at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, where she worked for one year before joining the faculty at New Mexico Tech in 2020.

According to Interim Vice President of Research Nelia Dunbar, Ph.D., Dr. Hurtig’s award for her paper is well deserved.

“This is a great award, and for Nicole to have won it so early in her career is very impressive,” she said.