2015
Maya G. Kopylova specializes in kimberlites, diamonds and mantle xenoliths. She is interested in petrology and volcanology of kimberlites, in characterization of diamonds and their inclusions, as well as in petrology of mantle xenoliths. Her ~60 papers have been cited 1470 times (h-index 21). Maya is proud of receiving the first introduction to petrology at the distinguished Petrology Department of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. There she had a chance to work under supervision of her senior student colleague Vadim Kamenetsky and later specialize in impactite studies under the guidance of Prof. V.I. Feldman. Maya got her PhD from the Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth, where she studied mantle xenoliths under supervision of Prof. Y. S. Genshaft. She worked as a visiting researcher with Profs. Griffin and O’Reilly (Macquary University, Australia) and won the Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Research Council, Republic of South Africa. Maya was introduced to diamonds and mineral inclusions by Prof. Gurney (University of Cape Town). After discovery of diamondiferous kimberlites on the Slave craton, when Canada became the most exciting destination for a kimberlite-diamond-mantle xenolith expert, Maya settled at the University of British Columbia, (Vancouver, Canada). In 2000, she won the University Award from the Canadian Natural Sciences Engineering Research Council. Maya’s research relies on strong links with diamond exploration companies, which support her financially and with sample donations. Maya’s Diamond Exploration Lab hosts an extensive (400 drill core boxes) collection of Canadian kimberlites and worldwide kimberlite-related rocks. She started a highly successful Vancouver Kimberlite Cluster, an academia-industry seminar series on diamond exploration research, organized multiple short courses for industry, 8 sessions at major international conferences and gave 30 invited and keynote presentations. In 2013-2014, Maya was invited with talks to two largest diamond mining companies, ALROSA and De Beers. Maya taught six courses on petrology and diamond exploration at UBC and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and graduated ~20 MSc and PhD students.
Several traits set Maya apart from other petrologists, 1) the conviction that all geochemical studies must be rooted in geological and petrographic observations; 2) the breadth of research expertise and willingness to tackle new problems, and 3) development of novel methods of petrological and mineralogical studies.