Ann Phyllis Sabina Stenson

Ann Phyllis Sabina Stenson (28 January 1930 – 29 September 2015) was a Canadian mineralogist, gemmologist, teacher, public servant and popular science author. Sabina has been instrumental in the development of X-ray diffraction as a means of identifying minerals. She is credited with the discovery of a variety of different minerals and currently has one named in her honor: Sabinaite.

With geology budding into the limelight of the modern day masses, Sabina wrote guidebooks of the different minerals maintained along Canada's major highways and what geological attributes to expect when driving on them. In addition to her mineralogical work, Sabina was author of the popular "Rocks and Minerals for the Collector" and "Rock and Mineral Collecting in Canada" book series. These were intended as guides for the general public and were published by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC), in both English and French, as part of the organization's report series. Ultimately, the two collections comprised 17 individual regional guides and have been credited with having "inspired many to-go rock, mineral and fossil hunting." named after the founder of the GSC, Sir William Logan. The local news later reported the discovery but Sabina was not initially appropriately credited with the discovery. Ann continued to frequent the quarry for research and quickly discovered four more previously unknown minerals. By the end of her examination of the Fracon quarry, Ann Sabina was recognized for collecting 9 of 10 new mineral specimens by 1990: Weloganite, Dresserite, Hydrodresserite, Strontiodresserite, Sabinaite, Franconite, Doyleite, Hochelagaite, Montroyalite and Voggite.

Awards Sabina was the recipient of The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) award in 2016 and was nominated for the same award in 2002. In 1977, Sabina received the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal, recognizing her actions in the scientific community. In 1994, she received the Berry Medal from the Mineralogical Association of Canada. The medal is awarded every year to a successful service to the Mineralogical Association of Canada in a selected role. Sabina was a treasurer at this society for more than 25 years. The Mineralogical Association of Canada decides on the greatest collection that is self-collected and displayed at the annual show competition, who receives this award. In 2009, Sabina was acknowledged for her excellent mineralogy contributions in Canada and received the “Elsa and László Horváth Prize” award from the Club de minéralogie de Montréal.