Geotimes September 1996

ABOUT PEOPLE

September 1996

The Association for Women Geoscientists has announced the four winners of the 1996 Chrysalis Scholarships. These financial aid awards are given to outstanding women graduate students in the geosciences who have experienced an interruption in their formal education and are in the final stages of writing their theses.

JEAN HEMZACEK LAUKANT is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geological Sciences at Indiana University. She is interested in developing programs that educate the public, especially children, about the importance of determining the health effects of minerals.

SHAYMARIA SILVESTRI is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geological Sciences at Rutgers University and plans to pursue a career in academia.

ARLENE COLLINS is an M.S. candidate at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and is studying anoxic annually laminated sediments as an indicator of past climate change.

STEPHANIE MICKLE is an M.S. candidate at Wesleyan University and plans to pursue a career in secondary-school education.

The Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES) installed its 1996-97 officers: ARLEN L. EDGAR, president; SCOTT LAURENT, vice president; PERRY O. ROEHL, vice president of natural resources; ROBERT D. COWDERY, secretary; and JAMES H. HENDERSON, treasurer.
Newly elected board members for the society include JAMES S. CLASSEN, H. RUDY PARKISON, PAUL M. STRUNK, and DONALD C. WAMBAUGH.

The Illinois State Geological Survey awarded PAUL B. DUMONTELLE the honorary title of Principal Engineering Geologist Emeritus for distinguished public service throughout his 33-year career with that organization. DuMontelle, who retired from his position as head of the Survey's groundwater and geotechnical group in April, has coordinated projects for the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium of State Geologists and conducted research on mine subsidence. He is the current secretary of the Association of Engineering Geologists and will become vice president in October. He is also a member of the American Institute of Professional Geologists and a fellow of the Geological Society of America.

JOHN G. VEDDER, a recognized authority on Pacific margin geology and a scientist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), was awarded the Thomas Wilson Dibblee Jr. Award. The honor recognizes excellence in geologic field mapping and commemorates the achievements of famous mapper Tom Dibblee.

Vedder has conducted regional field studies on the North American and Asian continents for the USGS. His detailed geologic maps and scientific papers have contributed to the understanding of the stratigraphic and tectonic framework and petroleum potential of southwestern California and the adjacent continental shelf. He recently edited and contributed to a two-volume publication on the geology of the Solomon Islands arc in the southwestern Pacific.

Colleagues praised Vedder's leadership skills and his work on interagency committees. Most noteworthy was his role in the survey's investigation into the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. These research efforts produced an unbiased examination of the geological conditions surrounding the blowout and led to improved monitoring of offshore drilling.

"After years of reading and hearing that geologic mapping 'serves no useful purpose,' is an 'exercise in futility,' or is 'out of style,' it is truly gratifying to be the recipient of this prestigious award," stated Vedder at the 1996 annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in San Diego where the Dibblee Award was presented. Vedder is the fourth recipient of the honor.

OBITUARIES

GILLIAN HARWOOD, an international researcher of evaporite and carbonate sedimentation and diagenesis, was the first sedimentologist to relate the principles of sequence stratigraphy to evaporite basins. She received awards recognizing her research contributions from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Geological Society of London. March 12.

RICHARD P. SHELDON, former chief geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), was an authority on world phosphate resources. He directed the survey's research programs for energy and mineral studies from 1972-1977. His own research on phosphate deposits led him through Chile, the Middle East, Peru, Turkey, and parts of the western United States. Sheldon, who retired from the USGS in 1982, was a fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. June 8, in Washington, D.C.