Geotimes Logo ABOUT PEOPLEJune 1998

ABOUT PEOPLE

MARCUS E. MILLING, executive director of the American Geological Institute (AGI), received an Honorary Membership Award from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) during AAPG's annual convention, which took place May 17-20 in Salt Lake City. The Honorary Membership Award recognizes distinguished service to AAPG and the profession of petroleum geology.
Milling came to AGI in 1992 with extensive experience in the upstream oil and gas industry. He had served as associate director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, Austin, since 1987. He also worked as general manager of the Geological Research Group for ARCO Oil and Gas Company from 1980 to 1987. Previously, he worked for Exxon Company USA as a researcher and research supervisor and with the company's exploration and production line operation groups in Texas and New Orleans. He played a major role in important petroleum discoveries for both companies.
Milling is a native of Galveston, Texas, and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Lamar University in Texas and his Ph.D. in 1968 from the University of Iowa. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Iowa and a member of the geology department's advisory council.

The 1998 officers of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) are: IHOR A. KUNASZ, president and director, Newmount Uzbekistan Ltd., Uzbekistan; JAMES W. BOYD, president-elect, John T. Boyd Co., Pittsburgh; DONALD E. RANTA, president- elect designate, Union Hill, Evergreen, Colo.; and ARTHUR A. SCHWEIZER, vice president and general manager, Glenbrook Nickel Co., Riddle, Ore.
SME inducted the new officers during its annual meeting, March 9-11, in Orlando, Fla., and also granted the following awards: the Hal Williams Hardinge Award to IHOR A. KUNASZ; the Erskin Ramsay Medal to IRL F. ENGELHARDT, chairman and CEO of Peabody Holding Co. Inc.; the Robert H. Richards Award to RONALD W. WIEGEL, University of Minnesota; the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal to DONALD V. FITES, chairman and CEO of Caterpillar Inc.

The Paleontological Research Institution inducted new officers during its annual meeting in May. The incoming officers, who take their positions July 1, include: SHIRLEY EGAN, president, Cornell University; JOHN C. STEINMETZ, first vice president, state geologist of Indiana and director of the Indiana Geological Survey; THOMAS E. WHITELEY, second vice president, retired from Photographic Research Laboratories at Eastman Kodak Company; HOWARD P. HARTNETT, treasurer, M&T Bank in Ithaca, N.Y.; MICHAEL D. SHAY, assistant treasurer, EMF Corporation in Ithaca; HENRY W. THEISEN, secretary, Adams, Theisen, and May law firm in Ithaca; CONNIE M. SOJA, past president, Colgate University.

The 1998 officers for the National Earth Science Teachers Association are: LINDA SELVIG, president; MICHELE L. BARTLETT, secretary; HOWARD DIMMICK, retiring president; TOM ERVIN, president elect; BRUCE HALL, treasurer; and M. FRANK WATT IRETON, executive advisor.

During its annual meeting, May 17-20, the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) granted the following awards: the Wilson Award to CARL N. DRUMMOND; Outstanding Paper in the Journal of Sedimentary Research to NATHANIEL W. DIEDRICH, CARL N. DRUMMOND, and BRUCE H. WILKINSON; Outstanding Paper in PALAIOS to RONALD E. MARTIN; Excellence of Oral Presentation to LISA GRIFFITH, LEE HUNT, BRIAN ZAITLIN, and CHRISTINE A. ROBERTSON; and Excellence of Poster Presentation to ROBERT KENT GOLDHAMMER and DANIEL J. LEHRMANN.

THOMAS KARL, senior scientist since 1980 for the National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been named director of the center, which is located in Asheville, N.C. He holds his master's degree in meteorology from the University of Wisconsin, is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Climate Research Committee.

On April 3, the University of Wyoming in Laramie opened its new Earth Sciences Building, which is connected to the university's Knight Geology Building. Funding for the building came from $17.9 million of Abandoned Mine Legislation funds, more than $1 million in private funds, and about $1 million in competitive federal equipment grants won by faculty. The building will house collections in vertebrate paleontology, remote-sensing satellite images, and Earth core samples. The new facility enhances studies and research in seismology, geochemistry, glaciology, stratigraphy, structural geology, petroleum geology, mineralogy, and geohydrology.

OBITUARIES
ATHELSTAN SPILHAUS, a prominent geophysicist, died during the night of March 29-30, according to his son, A.F. Spilhaus Jr., executive director of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The senior Spilhaus was 86 and lived in Middleburg, Va.

Spilhaus was known for his oceanographic and meteorological research. He invented the bathythermograph, a tool that measures the temperatures of ocean depths and was used during World War II for hunting submarines. Spilhaus was also a futurist, envisioning self-contained cities afloat on the ocean and conceiving the covered walkways that connect buildings in Minneapolis. He championed many of his ideas while he was dean of the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology from 1949 to 1966. He was also an investigator of physical oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and established a department of meteorology at New York University in 1938. He won the Legion of Merit in 1946 for his work as a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Army Air Force from 1943 to 1946 and for his contributions to the development of meteorological equipment. In his advocacy of science education, he produced a Sunday comic, "Our New Age," that reached 5 million newspaper readers.

In 1954, President Eisenhower named Spilhaus the first U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Spilhaus also served in science posts under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. The U.S. science exhibit he created at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962 is the Pacific Science Center today. In 1963, President Johnson enacted the National Sea Grant College Program, a concept Spilhaus first proposed. He was president of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1970 and was president of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia from 1967 to 1969.

Spilhaus was born Nov. 25, 1911, in Cape Town, South Africa. He earned both his bachelor's degree (1931) and his doctorate (1948) in science from the University of Capetown and his master's degree (1933) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after emigrating to the United States in 1931. He was a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society, member of the Royal Society of South Africa, fellow of AGU, and fellow of AAAS.



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