2024 GSA International Honorary Fellows

Jump to Response

Citation by Jay Quade

One of this year’s (2024) Awardees for Honorary Fellow of the GSA is Dr. Yehouda Enzel. Yehouda is a Professor of Earth Sciences in the Institute of Earth Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This award is meant to go to an international geologist who is both an outstanding scientist but has distinguished him- or herself in linking science and society. Yehouda amply fulfills these criteria and richly deserves this award.

As to Yehouda the scientist, there is hardly any aspect in desert geomorphology that Yehouda and his students have not touched, both locally in Israel and internationally across many deserts of the world. In fact, I believe that Yehouda has no equal among field-oriented geomorphologists, built from a lifetime of seeing lots of geology but also just intense engagement with his topic and near perfect recall of the scholarly literature. He started his career studying playa lake deposits in India and in the Mohave Desert, and he and his students have come back to lakes and lake deposits many times in his career, as in the recent raft of papers on every aspect of the Dead Sea and its glacial precursor, Lake Lisan. But Yehouda’s opus goes way, way beyond desert lakes. This includes studies of paleofloods and flood frequency; paleoseismicity, earthquakes, and fault scarps; desert loess and wind processes; surface dating and desert landforms; synoptic climatology of the Sahara and Levant; coastal processes and dunes; and the list goes on and on. His resume clearly attests to his scholarly breadth and interest. In this sense I view Yehouda as a sort of G.K. Gilbert of our time, whose name I most associate with desert Lake Bonneville, but who, like Yehouda, was insatiably interested in all aspects desert geomorphology. It is no coincidence that Yehouda received the G.K. Gilbert Award from AGU of 2022. GSA recognized Yehouda with the Farouk el Baz Desert Research Award in 2005, and he has been a GSA Fellow since 2015.

To the second point of the award, Yehouda has been a crusader all of his career about linking science with society, partly because much of his research has strong societal relevance. One can get a good sense of his science promotion efforts from scanning “research funding” and the “selected other activities” sections of his CV. The list of committees, panels, commissions, sessions, and chairmanships is impressive. For example, Yehouda was (and still is?) the Israeli delegate to the INQUA organization, where he also promoted paleoflood research as means for evaluation of risk and damage control to aid all countries, including Israel. He worked and developed innovative approaches to study precipitation and hydrology for flood risk assessment and mitigation to support decision making related to infrastructure and urban areas. His insights affected infrastructure design and urban planning and the development of long-term solutions to flood risk mitigation. Yehouda has also worked on earthquake hazard assessment and mitigation, neotectonics, as well as on soils and geomorphology to aid decision making related to infrastructure, and his research directly affected big projects including large-scale infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, housing). And he has focused a lot of effort on deciphering hydrological and geomorphological aspects in the Dead Sea basin to understand drought, debris flows and flood risk and their relation to synoptic circulation and climate fluctuations since the Pleistocene. This directly affects roads and infrastructural design, nature reserves and hydrological management of the basin.

A final comment on Yehouda the person. In human terms, Yehouda has been at least as impactful as he has been scientifically. He has shaped a whole generation of Israeli geologists and their “descendants”. From watching Yehouda in his home department, it was clear to me that his main focus was on service to his students and colleagues, and not on his own career. He lists no less than 45 graduate students that he has mentored over his career. No just mentored, but co-authored with and in many cases, placed in key jobs across Israel, in academia, in local or national government like the Geological Survey of Israel, and the private sector. As a colleague, I can’t think of a more supportive person and generally good citizen, as reflected in the number of advisory committees served on, meetings and sessions organized, guidebooks participated in, journals and books edited, and general service to his department (as chair, amongst many other duties over the years) and university.

Congratulations, Yehouda!

Response by Yehouda Enzel

Thank you, GSA, for this fellowship. I am deeply honored to share this tribute with the other esteemed recipients, past and present. In my institute, over the last 60 years, three became GSA Honorary Fellows—to join them is humbling.

Jay Quade, I am so grateful for the nomination and for assembling the letters supporting it. Thanks too to my many colleagues and devoted students who accompanied me for the research and the fun involved in building my academic career. And to my family who allowed me to run around the world for that same purpose. My achievements are theirs.

GSA has been my professional home since 1986 when I arrived in the USA for my PhD. I was accepted warmly into its Quaternary, geomorphology, and soil research communities, in which I happily remain a part/member. I gave my first-ever presentation at a GSA meeting, which, as you can still hear, required heavy preparations. That talk was celebrated later that night on the tables of a Las Vegas restaurant.

So, thank you GSA for the professional and collegial ride of a lifetime.

Jump to Response

Citation by Timothy D. Bechtel

My friend and colleague Nico Goldscheider is a polymath. He deeply understands geology, hydrology, ecology, music, gardening, linguistics, mountaineering, child-rearing, cake, ice cream, bicycles, and so many other topics.

But Nico’s career in geology may outshine even the cake. Nico has been a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Hydrogeology and Geothermics (CHYN) in Neuchatel, Switzerland (2002-2010), and Professor of Hydrogeology and Geothermics at Technical University Munich (2010-2011). Since 2011, he has been a Professor at KIT. His research includes karst and alpine hydrogeology, groundwater tracing techniques, groundwater quality, protection and management, and the microbiology and ecology of karst aquifers.

From 2009 to 2017, he served as chairman of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH/AIH) Karst Commission. He has led and worked in many significant international collaborations.

I know him from the IAH Karst Commission and also because for 13 years, he has led summer hydrogeology field camps for undergraduate students in Austria, attracting students from Europe, the USA (my students), and China. Nico has always welcomed my students in his University, and has always been willing to mentor them from a distance, and welcomed them to his programs.

Most importantly for the history of the geological sciences, he developed for Hydrogeology Journal a series of interviews of particularly eminent karst hydrogeologists including William and Elizabeth White (USA), Werner Käss (Germany), and Yuan Daoxian (China).

Of particular note, his researchgate.com Research Interest Score is 5882—a truly remarkable number in the 99th percentile of scientists from all disciplines worldwide.

Finally, Prof. Dr. Goldscheider is one of the best-humored people on Earth—able to tell belly-laugh stories in at least four languages (English, French, German, and Chinese) and maybe some other languages of which I am not even aware.

Congratulations Professor Doctor Nico Goldscheider. You richly deserve this award.

Response by Nico Goldscheider

Nomination for the GSA Honorary Fellowship came to me as a total surprise, and a very pleasant one. In the past 20 years, I have cooperated with many nice colleagues from the United States. The “International Conference on Karst Hydrogeology and Ecosystems” that took place in June 2003 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, including a wonderful field trip to Mammoth Cave and the eponymous National Park, was my first travel to the US and initiated diverse cooperation.

In 2004, I was searching for a potential author for the chapter on Geophysical Methods of my book “Methods in Karst Hydrogeology”, and I found and contacted Tim Bechtel, which was a great success, not only for the completion of this book chapter, but also and mainly in terms of long-lasting cooperation and personal friendship, which also includes our respective families.

Visiting the Edwards Aquifer Authority and several large karst springs in Texas was another highlight of my cooperation with colleagues from the US. In turn, many American colleagues have visited my institute in Karlsruhe, often as Darcy Lecturers, Birdsall-Dreiss/LaMoreaux Lecturers or invited speakers of our Karlsruhe Karst Lecture series. I would also like to mention the fruitful cooperation with the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in the preparation of our World Karst Aquifer Map, published in 2017. More recently, cooperation with colleagues from Arizona and Massachusetts was particularly fruitful and included joint field trips and publications.

Even more important is the exchange of young scientists, such as Tim’s students who join our field camp in the Alps almost every year, and PhD students from the US who come to Germany or vice versa—some came for a week, some for a year. I would like to extend this invitation to students from other US universities or colleges: We have always room for some additional students in our field trips to the Alps. In this spirit, I would like to conclude my response with the wish to continue and intensify cooperation with American friends and colleagues.

Again, thank you very much, dear Tim, for this nomination, and many thanks to the GSA for the award of this honorary fellowship.

Citation by John Repetski

It is our privilege and honor to award to Dr. Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek, an Honorary Fellowship of the Geological Society of America, for her very substantial scientific contributions over four decades.

Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek is a geologist/biostratigrapher, a scientific advisor at the Geological Survey of Slovenia, and a leader in the study of Paleozoic and Triassic conodonts in the European Dinarides.

Her field-based work has mainly focused on paleontology, biostratigraphy, and paleogeography of Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, but mainly Triassic, conodonts of Slovenia and the wider Dinarides region. Her studies include the definition of boundary stratotypes, stratigraphic correlations, geological mapping, and tectonic studies of the region. Her achievements include work on the Permian/Triassic boundary, faunal zonation and paleogeographic studies within the Triassic, and significant taxonomic advances.

Her professional contributions include over 400 published works. Together with geologist/husband Bogdan Jurkovšek, she co-authored monographs: “Conodonts of Slovenia” (bilingual, Slovene and English), “Fossils of Slovenia,” and “Geology of Kras” (the Karst region), showing her commitment to transfer her work to the general public.

She is among the most productive researchers in her country and in Europe.

Response by Tea Kolar-Jurkovšek

I am deeply honored and grateful to the Geological Society of America for this recognition and award. I also want to sincerely thank John Repetski for nominating me, as well as to those who provided supporting letters.

This award is recognition of biostratigraphic and paleontologic work. Moreover, I accept this honor also on behalf of Geological Survey of Slovenia; I acknowledge continuous support for my investigations in laboratory and field settings throughout my career that created stimulating environment so instrumental for my passion for my work.

And a special word of appreciation for all the colleagues with whom I have had joint investigations and/or enabled fruitful communications. Over the past decades, I had the opportunity to work with numerous geologists in many areas of the world and appreciate they shared their valuable experiences full of inspiration; their scientific collaborations and friendship are notable meaningful. After all, I owe my thanks to my family for their precious supportive role in my exploration of a lifetime.

I remain very grateful for this recognition to the GSA, and John Repetski for this wonderful honor!

Jump to Response

Citation by Pamela Hallock and Geoff Bailey

Prof. Dr. Valentina Yanko is an exemplary Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of America. As a Professor in the Department of Marine Geology, Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology and Paleontology, Odessa I.I.Mechnikov National University, Ukraine, she has served as Head of the Department (2012–2022), Head of the Scientific and Educational Center of Geoarchaeology, Marine and Environmental Geology; Head of the Scientific School "Problems of Marine Geology and Paleontology"; and Scientific Coordinator of the Paleontological Museum. Those responsibilities define the amazing range of her expertise, which includes marine geology, micropaleontology, geoarchaeology, and leadership in those realms. She has utilized micropaleontology and stratigraphy to understand Quaternary climate, sea-level change, and coastline migration, thereby contributing to understanding human-adaptive strategies in a major region for understanding the development of human societies and civilization, the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors.

Dr. Yanko's personal research record is sterling, with hundreds of publications and presentations at meetings around the world. Her paleontological expertise has played a key role in these studies. Her publications have dealt with issues essential to understanding and solving questions of global importance, namely those related to the paleoenvironmental, paleontological, and palaeohydrological history of the Ponto-Caspian Sea region and connected bodies of waters and rivers. These issues relate to climate of the recent geological past and to Quaternary glaciation of the Kara-Barents-Scandinavian ice sheets to the north that drained into the Aral-Caspian-Black system and into the Mediterranean Sea. Records in the Caspian and Black Seas addressed by Dr. Yanko's research bear on all these and relate to the history of the Mediterranean Sea and global oceans. Her numerous contributions have led to better understanding of late Quaternary changes that occurred in the critical water-mass corridor linking the Mediterranean and Caspian and Aral Seas via the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. She has demonstrated that this environmentally sensitive, semi-isolated corridor experienced dynamic changes in response to late Quaternary global sea-level rise and climatic shifts. She has documented changes in foraminiferal assemblages preserved in the sediment sequences of these basins. and these records provide critical evidence about the timing and progression during the Holocene from freshwater lakes to brackish waters and ultimately to marine conditions. Importantly, she also used these sediment records to determine changing lake levels, especially in the Black Sea, and to test the so-called Black Sea flood hypothesis, a proposed Holocene catastrophic rise in Black Sea waters related to the marine transgression via the Sea of Marmara and invoked to explain the Noah’s flood biblical narrative. Professor Yanko’s studies found insufficient evidence to support a major rise in Black Sea waters during the Holocene marine transgression. Instead, she demonstrated how salinity changes related to the corridor opening had broader effects on the circulation of the Mediterranean Sea, especially that related to seasonal climatic change and its effects on the production of Mediterranean intermediate waters. Her work on the Black Sea flood hypothesis resulted in two major co-edited books (2007, The Black Sea Flood Question; and 2010, Geology and Geoarchaeology of the Black Sea Region: Beyond the Flood Hypothesis). Another aspect of her activity includes the search of methane deposits in the Black Sea using meiobenthos resulted in her 2020 book Mud Volcanoes of the Black Sea Region and their Environmental Significance. Her work on stratigraphy and paleogeographic reconstructions of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors using foraminifera resulted in her 2022 book (written during the war in Ukraine) Quaternary Foraminifera of the Caspian-Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridors: Volume 1 Ponto-Caspian Foraminifera.

Dr. Yanko’s skills in organizing researchers with a diversity of expertise to focus on important issues are unmatched. Paramount in Dr. Yanko's accomplishments has been her ability to bring together researchers from many disadvantaged countries around the Black-Caspian-Aral Sea region, many of whom speak different languages, providing opportunities to scientists who otherwise would never have been able to convey their important research to the "outside" world. She has been responsible for surmounting language and political barriers between eastern and western researchers. Beyond these remarkable accomplishments is her leadership in bringing those research projects to fruition and publication. She has almost single-handedly raised monies to support bringing researchers together to discuss issues of global importance and then to coordinate research to see that everything gets published, often as the editor of a journal issue or book. And, significantly, she has brought the results to the world in a language that allows the full geoscience community to benefit—a critical factor in advancing science. Few have been so successful in this regard. Her record clearly reveals the exceptional number of research projects she has led and co-led, as well as her fund-raising skills that have helped so many in disadvantaged countries.

Dr. Valentina Yanko is an international leader in solving global geoscience issues. Both her paleontological research and her efforts to bring together the talents of many previously unknown experts in countries not before able to contribute to these questions have been of great importance to science. Prof. Dr. Yanko fully deserves the recognition of Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of America. Congratulations Prof. Yanko!

Response by Valentina Yanko

This is a very auspicious moment for me. I am deeply honored and grateful to receive this award. Thank you for recognizing my efforts.

The journey toward this moment has been long, beginning when I fell in love with paleontology as a student at Odessa I.I. Mechnikov State University. With many colleagues who worked with me, and my supervisor, Prof. Ivan Yatzko, who provided unconditional support, much has been accomplished despite numerous challenges. I also understand this award as recognition of the efforts of the entire staff of the Department of Marine Geology, which I had the honor to lead for many years. We continue to work, even now during the difficult war years, because we understand how necessary our research is for the economy of Ukraine.

Presently, our modest efforts are focused on searching for hydrocarbon deposits within the economic zone of Ukraine in the Black Sea. I am sure that even greater scientific achievements and discoveries still lie ahead for Ukrainian marine geologists despite the ongoing struggles. This award is very important to us, since it sustains our optimism and inspires our hope for the future.

Once again, thank you everyone!