CIM Student Essay Competition - Origin
Each year, the Institute recognizes the accomplishments of the younger generation. The CIM Student Essay Competition recognizes undergraduate and graduate students who have submitted essays to CIM. The fundamental purpose of the CIM Student Essay Competition is to stimulate interest in mineral industry problems and their solution, and to encourage the acquisition of experience and competence in technical report writing.
The submission of theses and other extended essays prepared by students in partial fulfillment of requirements for their course work, either undergraduate or graduate, are invited by the Institute as part of its efforts to encourage an early interest in our industries and the Institute’s work.
Competing Essays should have been screened by the appropriate university departments to ensure that only quality papers be presented for the competition. Good grammar, spelling and punctuation must be respected in any essay submitted.
Winners in each undergraduate category receive cash prizes of $500, and will be recognized for their excellence. The winner of the President’s Gold Medal will receive an additional $500 cash award, plus all-expenses-paid travel, accommodation and registration to the Annual General Meeting of the Institute. Winners in each graduate category receive $1,000 for the first prize, $500 for second prize.
Conditions
1. Nominations should be submitted no later than February 1st of the calendar year of the award.
2. When submitting an essay, the candidate must identify clearly under which category it should fall. A normal outline of the approach to the problem or dissertation on any subject would be:
- Statement of the topic and method of approach
- Record of history of previous work with a summary of results
- Detailed presentation and explanation of the topic
- Interpretation, conclusions and recommendations
3. The Main Committee for Student Essays, charged with selection of winning essays and making recommendations for the President’s Medal is composed of a Chairman nominated by CIM Council, and representatives of CIM technical Societies and Divisions. Essays shall be forwarded to the relevant committee representatives for each subject, and they shall mark the essays, recommend the winning essays and suitability for their publication in the CIM Bulletin.
4. The Committee will refer the nominations and its recommendation for the CIM President’s Medal to CIM Council not later than the last Council meeting held prior to the next Annual General Meeting of the Institute.
5. Nominees should be CIM National Members.
Undergraduate
1. Students may submit essays in any of the following categories: Coal; Environment; Geology; Industrial Minerals; Maintenance/Engineering; Metallurgy; Metal Mining; Mineral Economics; Mineral Processing; Petroleum; Rock Mechanics; and Strata Control.
2. All undergraduate essay winners are eligible for the President’s Medal, for which the recipient shall receive all-expenses paid travel to the Annual General Meeting of the Institute to receive the medal.
Graduate
1. Students may submit a Doctorate or Master’s thesis in the following categories: Geology; Mining; Metallurgy; and Petroleum.
The following adjudicating standards are followed:
| 1. | Clarity of presentation, use of tables, graphs, maps, illustrations | 50% |
| 2. | Soundness of interpretations, conclusions or recommendations | 15% |
| 3. | General Factors: Grammar, neatness, orderliness, binding | 15% |
| 4. | Summary and interpretation of history or previous work; bibliography | 10% |
| 5. | Novelty of work or originality in approach to topic | 10% |