Officer of the Order of Canada

• Awarded on: May 24, 2012
• Invested on: November 23, 2012

Paul Hoffman's groundbreaking observations have shaped contemporary views of Earth's history. As a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada, he spent 25 years mapping vast tracts of the northwestern Canadian Shield and produced pioneering research on plate tectonics during the Precambrian era. Later, while teaching at Harvard University, he gained worldwide recognition for field research conducted in sub-Saharan Africa that established the "snowball Earth" hypothesis, which suggests the planet was, at one point, entirely covered in ice.