Geological Society of America Award Winners for 2021

Boulder, CO, USA: Each year the Geological Society of America (GSA) recognizes outstanding scientific achievement and distinguished service to the geoscience profession. Honorees will be recognized at the Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony on 10 October 2021, during the Society’s Connects 2021 meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Highest honors go to Penrose Medalist, Ian W.D. Dalziel, The University of Texas at Austin; Arthur L. Day Medalist Katherine Freeman, Pennsylvania State University; and Donath Medalist (Young Scientist Award) Lidya Tarhan, Yale University.

Selected by immediate Past-President J. Douglas Walker, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, for the President’s Medal of The Geological Society of America is Marcia K. McNutt. McNutt has been a leader in geosciences for the last four decades. She started as a professor at MIT, and in the late 1990s, moved on to head some of the country’s most outstanding geoscience organizations. She first became the director and CEO of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in 1997. In 2009, she became the director of the U.S. Geologic Survey, where she served for four years. McNutt then became the chief editor for Science and then advanced the open-access journal Science Advances. She has most recently become the president of the National Academy of Science. Said Walker, “McNutt has tackled the most important topics at every stage of her career, whether they concerned rifting or continental collision or controversial and nuanced issues for the environment and public, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.”

GOLD MEDALISTS

Penrose Medalist Ian W.D. Dalziel, Institute for Geophysics and Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, was nominated by John Dewey, University College Oxford, for his “contributions as an innovative world leader in mapping and elucidating the geological structure and history of the Southern Andes and South America. In recognizing late Precambrian rifting of the Transantarctic margin of the East Antarctic craton Dalziel played a major role in pre-Pangaea plate reconstructions, which in turn spurred new debates on supercontinental cycles, including the Neoproterozoic ‘Snowball Earth’, the Cambrian transgression and the ‘explosion’ of Metazoan life.”

Katherine H. Freeman, Evan Pugh University Professor, Pennsylvania State University, was named the Arthur L. Day Medalist in recognition of her thirty years of demonstrated outstanding distinction. Nominator Ariel Anbar, Arizona State University, said, “Freeman’s ground-breaking work enabled compound-specific carbon and hydrogen isotopic analysis of organic molecules extracted from geological and environmental materials, moving it into the mainstream of geochemistry to solve many significant geologic problems.”

Lidya Tarhan, Yale University, earned the Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal) and a cash prize of US$10,000 for outstanding achievement as an early career professional. In nominating her for this award, Murray Gingras, University of Alberta, said, “Tarhan has made fundamental contributions to understanding bioturbation and the evolution of animal behaviors from Ediacaran through to Ordovician strata. Tarhan’s investigations of the development of bottom-dwelling marine assemblages during the early Paleozoic have flipped our understanding of the progressive colonization of the seafloor, and her efforts have vastly improved our understanding of Ediacaran and Paleozoic animal community structures.”

OTHER TOP GSA AWARDS

Doris M. Curtis Outstanding Woman in Science Award
This honor is awarded to a woman within the first three years following her degree, who has impacted the field of geosciences in a major way based on her Ph.D. research. Sarah M. Aarons, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, is the 2021 honoree. She was nominated by Kathleen Johnson, University of California Irvine, for her innovative, technically challenging, and multidisciplinary thesis that “led to substantial advances in our understanding of dust as a critical component of the Earth system.”

GSA Public Service Award and Honorary Fellow
Christopher Jackson, Chair in Sustainable Geoscience, University of Manchester, London, is recognized both for his exceptional service to the public on behalf of geoscience and also for ground-breaking contributions in seismotectonics. Jackson’s nomination for Honorary Fellow was presented by Rónadh Cox, Williams College, in tribute to his impacts on geoscience, including “instigation of the EarthArXiv preprint service and tireless advocacy for historically excluded groups in academia.” Jackson was nominated for the Public Service Award by Kim Hannula, Fort Lewis College, as a prolific science communicator. He has appeared on several documentaries, including BBC’s 2017 “Expedition Volcano,” National Geographic’s “X-Ray Earth,” and the UK Channel 5’s “The Pompeii Prophecy,” and was the first Black scientist to give one of the British Royal Institution’s Christmas lectures (“Earth: A user’s guide”).

Randolph W. “Bill” and Cecile T. Bromery Award for the Minorities
Hendratta N. Ali, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas, was recognized with the 2021 Bromery Award. Nominator Aradhna Tripati, University of California Los Angeles, called out Ali’s “visionary leadership in anti-racism work in the geosciences, and exemplary scientific contributions to advancing research, teaching, and mentorship with core values that include justice, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences, including the participation of Black students.”

Florence Bascom Award for Geologic Mapping
Fernando Flecha Alkmim, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, was nominated by Humberto L.S. Reis, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, for his “world-renowned field-based work and exhaustive structural mapping, which induced remarkable advances on the understanding of the South American platform, craton and Precambrian tectonics, tectonics of sedimentary basins, hydrocarbon and mineral exploration.”

Peter W. Lipman, Emeritus Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Menlo Park, California, was nominated by Ren Thompson, USGS, to acknowledge Lipman’s half century in service to the geologic community producing high-quality geologic maps and associated interpretative reports as a field geologist. His work, particularly on regional volcanic terranes and large-volume caldera complexes, is the basis for extensive magmatic systems research investigations.

Distinguished Service Awards
Two recipients received recognition for their extensive and outstanding service to the scientific community in multiple capacities:
Christopher L. Atchison, University of Cincinnati, was nominated by Nancy Riggs, Northern Arizona University, for his role as a “leader in the challenge to make the geosciences accessible to all people, especially those with disabilities. As founder and executive director of the International Association for Geoscience Diversity, he has organized workshops, field trips, and lectures that provide students and faculty with tools to create inclusive environments.”

Alicia C.M. Kahn, Senior Biostratigrapher, Chevron Corporation, Houston, Texas, was nominated by GSA’s Jennifer Nocerino, who noted that Kahn’s dedication and countless hours spent in service to student participants has been pivotal in shaping impactful GeoCareers programs for the young geoscientists at GSA annual meetings.

Photos of the GSA award recipients are online. Citations and responses from the 2021 GSA Medal and Award winners will be posted on this site after the GSA Connects 2021 meeting.

GSA’s Division awardees and newly elected Fellows are also online.

Read more about GSA’s medals and awards.

Incoming GSA President Barbara L. Dutrow, Louisiana State University, will give her 2021 Presidential Address on Sunday, 10 October, noon–1:30 p.m. PST, speaking on “Minerals Matter: Science, Technology, and Society.”

The Geological Society of America (GSA) (https://www.geosociety.org) unites a diverse community of geoscientists in a common purpose to study the mysteries of our planet (and beyond) and share scientific findings. Members and friends around the world, from academia, government, and industry, participate in GSA meetings, publications, and programs at all career levels, to foster professional excellence. GSA values and supports inclusion through cooperative research, public dialogue on earth issues, science education, and the application of geoscience in the service of humankind.

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