​Ore deposit geology and mineral exploration

Medal awarded to Franco Pirajno for the 70th Anniversary of the P. R. of China.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong poses for a group photo with foreign scientists and representatives of organizations winning this year's China's international sci-tech cooperation award in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 9, 2015. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo).

Franco is an authority on the geology and mineral deposits of China and has published numerous articles as well as authoring a book on The Geology and Tectonic Settings of China's Mineral Deposits, published by Springer in 2013. He has also held professorial positions at Peking University, the China University of Geosciences, Beijing and at Hefei University of Technology.  


Franco's work over the years was formally recognised by the government of China with an International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award in January 2015.  These are China's most prestigious awards for foreign scientists and Franco was one of only seven individual scientists from Russia,  Canada and the United States to receive an award in 2015. (Franco is third from the right in this formal photograph.)