John Meech is a Professor in the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering and Director of the Centre of Environmental Research in Minerals, Metals, and Materials at the University of British Columbia. A graduate of McGill University and Queen’s University, Dr. Meech began his career in 1969 with Roan Consolidated Mines Limited in Zambia where he worked on many projects related to copper and cobalt metallurgy. In 1974 he joined Queen’s University where his work focused on process control, and simulation, artificial intelligence, and environmental control. He moved to UBC in 1989 where he continued his work on mining and the environment and automation in mining. As Director of CERM3, he leads 35 Faculty members conducting collaborative research on environmental and sustainability issues in mining. His particular research area concerns geothermal energy in mining.

Dr. Meech is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (1992) and received the CIM Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2000 for his work on promoting Artificial Intelligence in the Mining Industry. In 1999, he received the Best Paper Award at APC’99 – The IEEE Advanced Process Control Workshop in Vancouver and in 2001, he was awarded the Williams Prize from the Institute of Materials in the U.K. together with Dr. Indira Samerasekera. In 2004, the Geothermal Resources Council awarded the Best Paper Award at the GRC-AGM, Indian Wells, California to Meech and his group.