In the fifties the Department expanded rapidly under the chairmanship of T.H. Clark and in the sixties under J.E. Gill. In 1955 a pioneer program was inaugurated leading to the M.Sc. (Applied) in Mineral Exploration. In l985 the geophysicists who had been attached to the Department of Mining joined the Department.
The department awarded its first Master"s degree in 1901 and the first doctorate in 1924. Since then its graduates have been an important part of the Canadian industrial and academic communities. No other Canadian earth sciences department has as many doctoral graduates in teaching positions in Canadian universities. In addition to serving Montreal and Quebec, the department has always had a strong representation of students from other areas of Canada and from countries around the world, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.