The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is proud to announce that Steve Blasco is the 2016 winner of the Massey Medal (awarded for outstanding career achievements related to Canada’s geography).

Blasco, a recently retired marine engineering geophysicist with the Geological Survey of Canada’s Bedford Institute of Ocean­ography, has spent close to 40 years studying the world’s marine environments, conducting research everywhere from Canada’s Arctic and the Great Lakes to the Caribbean, Russia and China.

His studies have included the seabed scouring and conical shoals that create hazards to pipelines on the Beaufort Sea floor, the sediments of the Lomonosov Ridge and shipwrecks such as the long lost HMS Breadalbane, which he used as time markers. He provided scientific support for Parks Canada’s establishment of Ontario’s Fathom Five National Marine Park and led the scientific team during the Imax filming of Titanic’s wreck site.

Blasco has worked tirelessly to bring together government, academic and industry groups and resources, and by doing so has time and again improved the public’s understanding of Canadian and world geography.