For Dr. Olav Lian and his team of student researchers it’s all about the details. Teeny, tiny, miniscule details — grains of sand in this case — that lead to big discoveries. Lian is an earth scientist in UFV’s Geography and the Environment department, and he and his student researchers have helped make a giant…

In a way, Dr. Olav Lian is just a grown-up version of the proverbial little boy who likes to pick up rocks at the seashore to see what’s under them. But along the way, he has collected a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s in physical geography, and a doctorate in geology; built state-of-the-art luminescence…