LINDA M. ABRIOLA received the 1996 Outstanding Educator Award from the Association for Women Geoscientists at that organization's annual meeting in October. Abriola has been a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan since 1984. She earned an M.S., M.A., and Ph.D. from Princeton University in civil engineering. As part of her doctoral research, Abriola developed the first multiphase flow model for the transport of nonaqueous phase liquid contaminants in groundwater systems; her early mathematical work is the foundation for all subsequent work in this area.

The Geological Society of America has announced the recipients of its 1996 postdoctoral research grants. VANCE T. HOLLIDAY, University of Wisconsin, Madison, received the Gladys W. Cole Memorial Research Award to support his project, "Origin and Evolution of Small Playa Basins on the Southern High Plains." The award carries a stipend of $12,000. The W. Storrs Cole Memorial Research Award, which provides a $10,000-stipend, was presented to ELLEN THOMAS, Wesleyan University, for her project, "Equatorial Pacific Deep-Sea Benthic Foraminifera: Faunal Composition and Diversity Over the Last 450 Kyr." (For information on the 1997 application process, see p. xx.)

In July, the University of Missouri (UM) at Columbia named TOM FREEMAN the UM Distinguished Teaching Professor of Geological Sciences. Freeman, who taught at the university level since 1964, emphasizes the importance of hands-on learning. He is currently developing a "virtual reality" classroom that demonstrates the formation of geological features. In his introductory classes, he uses the Francis Quadrangle to explore geologic principles. Freeman's research focuses on carbonate petrology. He received the National Association of Geoscience Teachers' Neil Miner Award in 1996. He emphasizes hands-on learning and field work in his classes.

OBITUARIES

LOUISA JOY HAMPTON, a petroleum geologist with the Oklahoma Geological Survey who retired in 1992, held a special position in the history of the state's petrology industry; she worked on a seismic crew in the 1940s -- a time when few women geologists held jobs in oil exploration. Hampton was appointed by five governors to serve on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. She was a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the American Institute of Professional Geologists. June 3.

JOHN SCHILLING was the state geologist of Nevada and director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology from 1972 to 1987. Schilling's career with the bureau spanned 27 years. He worked previously at the New Mexico Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources. July 7.

WALTER P. KETTERER retired in 1978 as chief of the scientific publications program at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va. Before joining the survey in 1961, he worked as an exploration geologist for Gulf Oil Corp. and Sohio Petroleum Co. He was a member of the Association of Earth Science Editors, Geological Society of America, and American Association of Petroleum Geologists. Aug. 17.