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Citation by Janice Bishop
Dr. Christian Koeberl is awarded the GSA Distinguished Service Award for his highly effective
contributions as science editor of GSA publications, long-term support of GSA meetings and
special sessions, and for his generous promotion, service, and time volunteering for the
geoscience community through journal editing, scientific reviews, publications, public
talks, and museum exhibits. Christian has been at the University of Vienna since 1985, first
as assistant, then associate, and finally full professor of “Impact Research and Planetary
Geology”. He is also a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (where he chairs
several committees), and asteroid 15963 is named “Koeberl” in his honor. He has mentored
countless graduate students and postdocs from many countries around the world. Thus, he has
launched numerous young scientists on geochemistry careers and spread knowledge on Neutron
Activation Analysis and other geochemistry techniques to many in our society.
He became an Associate Editor of the GSA Bulletin in 2006, then stepped up to serve as Editor
in Chief from 2009-2015, and has continued as Associate Editor since 2016. Also in 2016 he
became the GSA Books Editor, a role he still holds today; he has recently been confirmed for
a second term until 2023. Further, as associate editor of the journals “Geochimica et
Cosmochimica Acta” and “Meteoritics and Planetary Science” for decades he has ensured the
highest standards in publication of our community’s geochemistry papers. He also served on
the GSA Committee on Penrose Conferences and Field Forums from 2009 to 2013 and took on the
role of Chair from 2011 to 2013. His own research spans over 460 peer-reviewed papers (as of
2019) on all aspects of impacts and geochemistry, covers many types of geologic
environments, and explores multiple field sites around the Earth and on planetary bodies.
Christian became Director General of the Natural History Museum in Vienna in 2010, taking on
a top to bottom revision of this important, historic collection of rocks, minerals,
meteorites, and gems. He has transformed this institution into a modern and engaging museum
that has become a popular outing for families, tourists, and schools, as well as a
state-of-the-art research facility. Vienna’s Natural History Museum has a 270-year-history
and is one of the largest and most important of its kind in the world. It houses the world’s
oldest meteorite collection, and also presents the world’s largest meteorite display. Under
Christian’s tenure, the famous meteorite hall was completely updated and modernized, as were
the dinosaur hall, the anthropology and prehistory displays, and facilities like the shop,
coffee/restaurant, wardrobes, and parts of the mineral and geology displays. In addition,
modern research laboratories were installed. The museum has about 350 employees, including
70 scientists, and during Christian’s tenure as director the number of visitors has almost
doubled, to close to 800,000 per year, and the number of externally funded research projects
has tripled, transforming the NHM Vienna into one of the most modern and well-recognized
research institutions in Austria.
Christian regularly attends GSA meetings and convenes topical sessions or co-organizes
conferences. Highlights include the 2001 GSA Field Forum “Bolide Impacts on Wet Targets” and
the 2004 Field Forum “Processes on the Early Earth”, the Penrose Conference “The Late Eocene
Earth”, Monte Conero, Italy, in 2007, and the 2017 GSA Penrose Conference “250 Million Years
of Earth History in Central Italy: Celebrating 25 Years of the Geological Observatory of
Coldigioco”, in Apiro, Marche Region, Italy. Besides speaking routinely at GSA, he
generously provides public lectures on many topics. Attending his public talks is also one
of my stronger memories from visiting his group at the University of Vienna in 1989.
The Distinguished Service Award is a fitting honor for the exceptional service Dr. Christian
Koeberl has generously contributed to GSA for decades. His indelible contributions to GSA
and extraordinary assistance and leadership to the broader geoscience community is exactly
what was intended by the society in creating this award.
Response by Christian Koeberl
I am very grateful to GSA for presenting me with me a "Distinguished Service Award", and I am
particularly grateful to Janice Bishop and Peter Englert for nominating me. Being a
scientist is a complex undertaking. One should of course do teach, but mainly do research
and publish this research, to make it accessible to the community (and to society, which
often foots the bill for research). But it also involves being part of the larger community,
and this requires that one also contributes something to the interactions within our
community, and working with scientific associations such as GSA. I have always felt that,
being a scientist, one should not only publish papers, but also that it is part of one's
duty as member of the scientific community, to participate in the whole publishing effort.
This includes not only writing papers but also reviewing them (as well as grant
applications), and serving in various editorial functions. This is what helps to keep our
science honest, and also is fair to all involved. If somebody only writes papers and expects
them to be reviewed and published quickly, but often refuses review requests because they
are "too busy", then this is unfair. This is why I often review papers, and why I have
volunteered my editorial services for many years, for GSA and other journals and
publications, and why I have served on various review boards and committees throughout our
community. In editorial meetings I often joke that if somebody submits a paper to a journal
they should have to agree to review at least two other papers for that same journal. Its
only partly a joke. In my years as editor I have seen that the number of people who decline
to do reviews is increasing. This is frustrating for an editor but also for the editorial
staff and for authors. It is especially frustrating when the same people who complain that
"it takes so long" that they get their reviews back are also those who repeatedly decline to
do reviews themselves. I have quite a list of such people... So, please, all of you out
there: do your part to keep our science going, and distribute the loads fairly, and accept
to do more reviews. Having said that, I am recently frustrated by the deluge of mostly open
access journals who charge a hefty fee for publication to the authors, and who want reviews
in just a few days, only to ignore the advice of the reviewers and still accept often
mediocre papers. Since I am already on my bully pulpit, let me say one more thing, about
open access. This is a fine idea. But...only a fraction of the science that is published
also results from grants and funding organizations that these days so often "require" open
access publication. But what about all the other researchers, from smaller universities,
colleges, museums, or retired researchers, who cannot afford the often very high fees; and
yes, it does cost something to run a good journal, staff, equipment, communications, and
while printing is less of an expense these days, formatting and keeping data available
for "ever" also costs quite a lot. So publishing is not free. When I go to a
supermarket I cannot grab the eggs and say, the farmer pays (even if the farmer got
agricultural subsidies from the government). No, the user has to pay. Shifting from the
consumer pays to the producer pays requires some critical thinking and flexibility, and it
is not an easy business model especially for small (or even larger) society-based
(non-commercial) publishers, such as the GSA. But I want to end by saying that the
experience of serving as Science Editor for the GSA Bulletin, and now as GSA Books Editor,
has always been a rewarding one. I could not have done all this, however, without the always
excellent and dedicated support of the staff here at GSA, to whom I say a big "thanks" as
well.