Sarah A. Gleeson is the Professor in Sustainability Geoscience at the School of Earth Sciences in UCD, holds a Research Ireland Research Professorship and is the Director of the Research Ireland Centre for Applied Geosciences (iCRAG). She received a B.A. (mod.) in Geology from Trinity College Dublin and a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London. Subsequently, she held post-doctoral positions at the Natural History Museum, London and the University of Leeds before moving to the University of Alberta, Canada (2001-2016). From 2016 to 2025 she was the W3 Professor in Mineral Resources at the Freie Universität Berlin and led the Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry Section at the GFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. Prof. Gleeson has a large research group focussing on the genesis and detection of base metal ore deposits in sedimentary basins. She serves on several advisory boards to scientific institutions and on international grant funding panels. She was elected to the membership of Academia Europaea in 2023 and is a member of the National Science Advice Forum in Ireland.
Unlocking Value Through Research in the Raw Materials Value Chain
Ireland is a major zinc producer and ranks as one of the most prospective countries in the world for zinc. The zinc mineralized Irish Midlands are a unique natural laboratory. Research carried out in iCRAG over the last 10 years has led to the development of new mineral systems models for Irish-type deposits, improved ore body knowledge and enabled the development of new approaches for detection of deposits under cover. This presentation will give an overview of the impact of the research including some case studies. Current research focuses on developing new workflows and machine learning approaches to integrate geological, geophysical, petrophysical and mineralogical/geochemical data. The iCRAG expertise in sediment hosted mineralized systems is currently being applied to other basins globally e.g. Central African Copper Belt, Res Dog District Alaska and the Chu Charyshu Basin.
