Summary
Simon M. Jowitt is the Director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG), Nevada State Geologist, and the Arthur Brant Chair in Exploration Geology at the University of Nevada Reno. He has a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Geology from the University of Edinburgh, an M.Sc. in Mining Geology from the Camborne School of Mines, and a Ph.D. from the University of Leicester, all in the UK. Simon also spent eight years at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, initially as a three-year postdoctoral research fellow working with Anglo American before moving to spend seven years as an Assistant and then tenured Associate Professor of Economic Geology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Simon's research focuses on the use of geochemistry to unravel geological processes in a variety of settings with direct application to understanding not only mineralizing systems but also igneous petrology, mineral exploration, global tectonics and the links between magmatism and metallogeny. He has also undertaken extensive research on mineral economics, global metal resources and the security of supply of critical minerals, and the “economic” side of economic geology. Simon has published more than 130 scientific papers, peer-reviewed book chapters and geological survey reports since 2010 and has given multiple plenary and keynote presentations at national and international conferences. He is also the recipient of multiple awards, including the Association of American State Geologists (AASG) Charles J. Mankin Memorial Award for 2025, the AusIMM Geoscience Society's Distinguished Lecturer Award for 2022, the Rocky Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies Honorary Scholarship in 2022, and the Society of Economic Geology’s Waldemar Lindgren Award in 2014. His research publications have also been awarded two IoM3/AusIMM Mann Redmayne medals in 2016 and 2013.
Simon has also served as a committee member and workshop co-organizer for the Building Capacity to Meet Current and Future Challenges and Needs Facing the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce workshop organized by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) in 2024, outlining the workforce challenges and opportunities facing the U.S. minerals industry. He also gave a presentation at the NASEM Brines as a Resource for Critical Minerals meeting in 2024 and was an invited expert at the NASEM Meeting of Experts on Critical Minerals in 2023.
About the Arthur Brant Endowed Chair in Exploration Geology
While working for the Newmont Mining Corporation, Dr. Arthur A. Brant was in charge of geophysical research and development. In 1991, Brant's friends and former colleagues established this endowed chair in geophysics in his name. Established: 1991. (Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering)