Kyle Henderson, PhD Candidate receives 2020 Hugh C. Morris Fellowship

Congratulations to Kyle ! Recipient of 1 of 2 Hugh C. Morris Experiential Learning Fellowship. Administered by the Kimberley Foundation, the fellowship supports a student-designed self-guided experiential program related to studies in earth sciences, climate change, sustainability, or the social impact, social sciences or design sciences concern with earth, sustainability of environmental issues. The fellowship provides up to $40,000 to the awardee for travel, conference fees, research costs and community engagement expenses.

In March 2020, Kyle was awarded the Hugh C Morris Fellowship for his program entitled “Metalliferous black shales: a source of critical metals to safeguard a sustainable future.”
Working with 15 international collaborators from Canada, USA, South Africa, China and Germany, Kyle’s research focuses on understanding the processes that enrich metals in fine-grained, organic-rich sedimentary rocks called black shales. Black shales can contain a broad suite of metals (e.g., Mo, Ni, V, Co, Se, Zn), many of which are critical in creating renewable technologies like batteries or solar panels. A disruption in the supply of critical metals will negatively impact the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon renewable energy-based future. Metal-rich or metalliferous black shales are an attractive potential future resource and may become necessary as conventional metal-resources are consumed.