"Looking back, your goals are to leave a better world than you found it; but your area of impact is so small. Also you rather feel that you did not do justice to the opportunities presented."
(Arthur A. Brant)

In bestowing its highest award, the Maurice Ewing Medal to Dr. Arthur A. Brant, the SEG Awards Committee stated that this honor is in recognition of his "major contributions to the advancement of the science and profession of exploration geophysics, and his influence on mining geophysics, both as teacher and explorationist." These words adequately describe the lifelong achievements of Arthur Brant whose career spans over half a century in every aspect of mining geophysics.
Born in Toronto, October 23, 1910, he graduated from the University of Toronto in 1932, winning the gold medal in mathematics and physics, and getting his first exposure to geophysics. He obtained his M.A. the next year, and then went to Princeton on the Queens Scholarship in Physics. A German Exchange Fellowship followed in 1935-1936 at the University of Berlin, after which he returned to the University of Toronto as assistant professor in physics.
With a crew of university students, in 1938, using electrical methods, he traced a newly discovered high grade hematite deposit through the ice of Steep Rock Lake. This made front page headlines in Toronto's Evening Telegram, to the conservation of the University, but resulted in instant accreditation of the mining and prospecting fraternity.
In 1940, he married Lilli Tekla Umbach, a now prominent portrait painter; became an associate professor at the University of Toronto; and started to develop a wide consulting practice. His work for Newmont led to his joining the company in 1947 as director of Newmont's Geophysical Department, a position he retained until retirement in 1976.
At Newmont, a decision was made, in 1946, to see if any technology emerging from the war could be applied to exploration. After visits to the Radio Frequency Laboratories in Boonton, New Jersey, where Brant was conducting Newmont's investigations, he recommended a follow-up on the "pulse" method (based on wartime underwater mine detection tests) as a potentially useful technique for detecting heretofore unresponsive disseminated porphyry ores.
The rest is history. With a talented team of former students from the University of Toronto, the Newmont group successfully developed the induced polarization technique, culminating in the discovery of significant mineralization at Cuajone, Peru. For drillhole work, in ravelly and inclined holes, the group developed plastic casing techniques, offset slotted rodding and, in collaboration with McPhar, the first simple borehole magnetometer.
Under Brant's leadership in the early '50s, extensive theoretical and experimental work was carried out to establish a solid foundation for the electromagnetic methods. The Newmont-Aero helicopter EM system, with rigidly mounted transmitter and receiver coils, was developed in 1956. The basic theory, and first patent, on time domain EM techniques occurred in the early '50s, followed by successful field tests in Cyprus. Nuclear magnetic resonance experiments were carried out in the mid '50s on chalcopyrite ores. Holographic drill hole experiments followed in the late '60s.

A measure of Brant's accomplishments can be found in 22 published papers and 14 patents granted over two decades.
Throughout the years, Brant managed to keep one foot in academia, lecturing widely and serving on various advisory committees: the Hoots Lectures at Stanford; the McKinstry Lecture at Harvard; Regents Lecturer at Berkeley; as well as countless lectures in Japan, India, Germany, Australia and Canada; advisory committees at Princeton, UCLA, Berkeley, and several others. He is presently adjunct professor both at Columbia University and the University of Arizona.
Brant was SEG Distinguished Lecturer in 1960 and was granted honorary membership in 1963. In 1948, he was instrumental in organizing the Mining Geophysical Symposium in Denver which led to the inclusion of mining geophysics under the SEG. In 1964, he received the Jackling Award of the AIME, and in 1978, honorary life membership in Nature Conservancy. In 1985, a group of former students and associates established the Arthur Brant Lecture series at Columbia University.
After his retirement from Newmont, he served as first year chairman of the Geosat Committee (1976), helping to establish its direction and relationships with NASA, Congress, Senate, etc., and its efforts to promote satellite applications to resource exploration.

In his student years, he established a considerable reputation as a hockey player, as a member of Canadian intercollegiate championship teams (1929, 1933), and as a member of Canadian semifinalists (1929). As coach of the German Olympic hockey aspirants
(winter 1934-1935), he was featured on the cover of Berlin Illustrated.
I first met Brant when he interviewed me for a position while I was a graduate student at Lamont Geological Observatory, whose director was Maurice Ewing. Having known them both, I am pleased and proud to be asked to write this citation. No one is more deserving of the award than Arthur A. Brant.

Misac Nabighian