Adam C. Simon is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan. He earned a BS degree in geology from the University of Maryland where he completed an honors thesis investigating the controls on copper mobility in granitic magmas, a MS degree in geology from Stony Brook University where he worked with Don Lindsley to experimentally assess the role for liquid immiscibility to form nelsonites in anorthosite complexes, and a PhD degree in geology and geochemistry from the University of Maryland where he worked with Philip Candela to experimentally study the mobility of copper, gold, iron, silver and platinum in magmatic-hydrothermal systems.
Adam then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at The Johns Hopkins University where he worked with Professor Bruce Marsh to investigate the formation of layered mafic intrusions in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. From 2005 - 2012, Adam was a faculty member at the University of Nevada Las Vegas where he was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2011. He moved to the University of Michigan in 2012 as an associate professor with tenure and was promoted to full professor in 2018. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists in 2015. His research program combines field, analytical and experimental studies to unravel the genesis of mineral systems, including iron oxide - coper - gold (IOCG), iron oxide - apatite (IOA), porphyry-Cu and Carlin-type Au deposits. Adam has co-authored two textbooks Mineral Resources, Economics and the Environment, and Earth Materials: Components of a Diverse Planet, and has published nearly fifty papers in the field of mineral resources.
Adam has been recognized for his transformative pedagogical approaches to teaching, having been nominated and awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award for the College of Sciences at UNLV in 2010, the Provost's Teaching Innovation Prize at the University of Michigan in 2017, and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan in 2019. In 2018, Adam was nominated for and awarded the Innovation Prize by the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) at the University of Michigan for his work mentoring undergraduate students to conduct research and publish online Michigan Sustainability Cases focused on a variety of issues in the developing world, including the ecological impact of electronic waste, deforestation and habitat fragmentation, alternative fuels, sustainable farming and decentralized renewable energy infrastructure.
Adam is dedicated to mentoring undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, with one-third of the 60 undergraduate students, 11 MS students and 10 PhD students who he has mentored being from underrepresented backgrounds. Adam co-organizes and co-teaches a STEM capacity building summer school in Accra, Ghana, each summer that draws 150 participants from universities across West Africa. Adam is now serving as Director of the Michigan Research and Discovery Scholars Program (MRADS), which is a Living Learning Community that provides incoming first-year students a research partnership with a faculty member in an area of their choosing, as well as a small, diverse & supportive community to call home. The mission of MRADS is to recruit, support, and retain students from diverse backgrounds and academic fields; to introduce them to the interdisciplinary nature of research and the excitement of discovery; to engage students in building a community based on mutual respect and affirmation of diversity; and to enhance students' undergraduate experience by providing them with academic and professional resources as well as engaging extracurricular opportunities to support their academic and personal growth.
