February 1999
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February 1999
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After serving the American Geological Institute (AGI) for 11 years, MARILYN J. SUITER left in December to become a program officer at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Directorate for Education and Human Resources. She will work on programs related to geoscience education and diversity issues at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.
Suiter joined AGI in 1987 as a research assistant. She became director of Special Education Programs in 1991, director of Education and Human Resources in 1992, and director of Human Resources and Career Development in 1998. She also led AGI’s Minority Participation Program, which awards scholarships to under-represented American geoscience students every year. Suiter herself received a scholarship from the program while she earned her bachelor’s degree in geology from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. She earned her master’s degree in earth science from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Suiter has served as member of and advisor to several NSF committees. She was chair of the Committee for Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering from 1996 to 1998 and served on the Advisory Committee for the Geoscience Directorate from 1994 to 1997. She was a member of the Advisory Board for the National Research Council’s Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education. Suiter is an active member in many professional societies and served as 1988 president of the Association for Women Geoscientists. She also taught science in Philadelphia public schools from 1970 to 1976.
CRAIG SCHIFFRIES, formerly the director of the National Research
Council’s (NRC) Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR), became associate
executive director of NRC’s Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and
Resources on Dec. 5. Before he joined NRC in 1995, Schiffries was director
of government affairs for the American Geological Institute. Schiffries
received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from Yale University.
He was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University, where he earned a bachelor’s
degree with honors in philosophy, politics, and economics. He earned his
Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University. His awards include the Belknap
Prize from Yale University and the Kramer Prize from the University College,
Oxford. He also served as a Carnegie Fellow at the Geophysical Laboratory
of the Carnegie Institution
of Washington.
EDMOND G. DEAL became director and state geologist for the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology on Oct. 1, 1998. Since 1995, he has been a consulting geologist in Houston, Texas, and head geothermal geologist for Amoseas Indonesia Inc. (a subsidiary of Chevron and Texaco). From 1985 to 1995, he was a senior district geologist and exploration manager for Pennzoil Sulphur Co. in Houston. He also worked for Duval Corp. in Tucson, Ariz. Edmond earned his Ph.D. in geology from the University of New Mexico.
MARK S. KUZILA became director and state geologist for the Nebraska Geological Survey on July 1, 1998. Kuzila has been principal soil scientist with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Conservation and Survey Division, which houses the state survey, since 1983. He has worked with the survey since 1975, and earned his Ph.D. in agronomy from the University of Nebraska in 1988. Kuzila is a past president and current president-elect of the Nebraska Society of Professional Soil Scientists.
DON L. ANDERSON, a professor of geophysics at the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech), was one of nine researchers to receive
the National Medal of Science in 1998. President Clinton named the medalists
in December. Anderson, along with Adam M. Dziewonski of Harvard University,
also received the 1998 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences.
Anderson earned his doctorate in geophysics
from Caltech in 1962 and has been a leader in deep-earth research since
the 1960s. He has also received the Emil Wiechert Medal of the German Geophysical
Society, the Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America,
and the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) William Bowie Medal. He is a
past president of AGU.
The members of the 1999 Executive Committee of the American Institute of Professional Geologists are: President THOMAS G. FAILS, Denver. Colo.; President-Elect DENNIS PENNINGTON, National Environmental Technologies Corp., Telford, Pa.; Vice-President ROBERT G. FONT, Dallas, Texas; Secretary JOHN L. BOGNAR, Leggette, Brashears & Graham, St. Louis, Mo.; Treasurer KELVIN J. BUCHANAN, HB Engineering Group, Reno, Nev.; and Editor MYRNA M. KILLEY, Illinois State Geological Survey. Advisory board representatives include RONALD E. ALEXANDER, Louisville, Ky.; DAWN H. GARCIA, Hydrometrics, Tucson, Ariz.; F. LYNN KANTNER, Groveport, Ohio; and WILLIAM J. SIOK, Exeter, N.H.
The Geological Society of America
gave its 1998 awards to: TERRY A. PLANK, University of Kansas, recipient
of the Donath Medal (Young Scientist Award); JACK E. OLIVER, Cornell
University, recipient of the Penrose Medal; EDWARD B. WATSON, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, recipient of the Day Medal; and JUNE R. FORSTROM
and CHARLES J. MANKIN, recipients of the GSA Distinguished Service
Award. Honorary Fellows, geologists working outside of North America who
have distinguished themselves, are SHIGEO ARAMAKI, Japan; VICTOR
E. KHAIN, Russia; and WERNER-FRIEDRICH SCHREYER, Germany.
The society gave its John C. Frye Environmental
Geology Award to the COLORADO GEOLOGICAL SURVEY for its special
publication, A Guide to Swelling Soils for Colorado Homebuyers and Owners.
The 1999 officers of the Association for Women Geoscientists are: President DEBRA E. WILLIAMS, Austin, Texas; President-Elect MARGUERITE A. TOSCANO, Silver Spring, Md.; Secretary SEAN J. HUNT, White Bear Lake, Minn.; Treasurer LAURIE E. SCHEUING, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Editor JOANNE KLUESSENDORF, University of Illinois-Urbana; and Past President ANNE CAVAZOS, San Ramon, Calif.
SETH STEIN, past chairman and current professor in the Department
of Geological Sciences at Northwestern University, became scientific director
for the NAVSTAR Consortium (UNAVCO) in September. UNAVCO is a consortium
of 80 international universities and laboratories that promote the use
of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for geoscience research.
Stein is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU)
and winner of AGU’s 1989 James B. Macelwane Medal. He pursues research
in plate tectonics, space geodesy, and seismology.
The University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment has named THOMAS R. CROW as its first Theodore Roosevelt Professor of Ecosystem Management. Crow holds his current job as research ecologist in the Forestry Sciences Laboratory at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service North Central Forest Experiment Station in Rhinelander, Wis.
The American Geophysical Union hosted
a lecture during its December meeting in San Francisco to honor the late
EUGENE M. SHOEMAKER. The Shoemaker Lecture, led by Susan W. Kieffer
of Kieffer & Woo in Palgrave, Ontario, Canada, focused on the Chicxulub
impact crater and the issues surrounding it. Shoemaker, Keiffer said, inspired
many scientists to pursue full-time careers investigating impact-cratering
mechanics. He also conveyed his knowledge and enthusiasm about meteorites
to the general public.
In November the DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) dedicated a long-term,
climate research station on the island of Nauru in the Central Pacific
Ocean. The station is one of three sites being developed in the tropical,
western Pacific by DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program.
The first station has been operating on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea
since October 1996. The stations will collect data to help scientists understand
climate change; focus on how the sun’s energy is transmitted, absorbed,
and reflected in the tropics; and understand the role of clouds in heating
and cooling the atmosphere.
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