Alice Evelyn Wilson, MBE, was Canada’s first female geologist and a trailblazing paleontologist. Born on August 26, 1881, in Cobourg, Ontario, she worked with the Geological Survey of Canada from 1909 to 1946, becoming a leading expert on fossils and rocks in the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Valley. Despite facing gender-based barriers, she broke new ground by becoming the first woman elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1938.
Denied access to fieldwork with male colleagues due to sexist policies, Alice creatively navigated these restrictions. She embarked on solo expeditions by foot and bicycle, later buying her own car when the Survey refused her one. Her resilience and ingenuity paved the way for her significant geological discoveries and enduring legacy.
In 2019, there was a new kimberlite discovery at the Gahcho Kue Mine. It was proudly named by De Beers Canada and Mountain Province Diamonds after Alice Evelyn Wilson, a trialblazer in Canadian geoscience! The Wilson kimberlite.