Boswell Wing Named 2022 John Hayes Award Recipient
March 02, 2023
Boswell Wing, associate professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA), will receive the 2022 John Hayes Award from the GS. The award is given to a mid-career scientist for outstanding accomplishments that draw together multiple fields of investigation to advance biogeochemical science. It was created in 2017 by the Organic Geochemistry Division and a group of friends, colleagues, and students of John Hayes. Prof. Wing is recognized for contributions to science and mentorship at the intersection of isotopic geochemistry, microbiology, and studies of Earth's fluid envelope that have shaped the fabric of our knowledge of Earth as a biogeochemical system. Presentation of the 2022 award was delayed following the pandemic.
Roberta Rudnick Named 2023 V. M. Goldschmidt Medalist
February 13, 2023
Roberta L. Rudnick, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (USA), will receive the 2023 Victor Moritz Goldschmidt Award this July. The Goldschmidt Award is the society's highest honor, presented annually for major achievements in geochemistry over a career. Prof. Rudnick is recognized for her contributions to understanding the composition, origin, and evolution of the continents and lithospheric mantle and developing Li isotope geochemistry.
Myrna Simpson Named 2023 C. C. Patterson Medalist
February 13, 2023
Myrna J. Simpson will receive the 2023 Clair C. Patterson Award, which recognizes an innovative breakthrough in environmental geochemistry of fundamental significance within the last decade, particularly in service to society. Dr. Simpson is Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Toronto (Canada), Associate Director of the Environmental NMR Centre, and the Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Integrative Molecular Biogeochemistry. She is recognized for work that has reshaped our understanding of pollutant fate and anthropogenic impacts on biogeochemical cycling in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Sarah Aarons Named 2023 F. W. Clarke Medalist
February 13, 2023
Sarah Aarons, Assistant Professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA), will receive the 2023 F. W. Clarke Award this July. The Clarke Award honors a single outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry by an early-career scientist. Dr. Aarons is recognized for using novel applications of radiogenic and non-traditional stable isotope systematics to identify dust sources in dust traps and ice cores, understand mineral fractionation associated with dust transport, and unravel the processes responsible for crustal generation at the Hadean/Archean transition.
Elements: Organic Cement and Concrete: From the Romans to Mars
February 08, 2023
Portland cement represents an essential commodity in a developing and quickly urbanizing world. However, the downside of its popularity is a massive ecological footprint, in terms of global warming potential and consumption of mineral and water resources. Therefore, the development of sustainable alternatives to ordinary Portland cement constitutes a fundamental technological and societal challenge. In this context, mineralogy and geochemistry play an important role in assessing primary and secondary resources for a new generation of cement and concrete that has a reduced ecological footprint, drawing from the knowledge of both ancient and modern binders. Mineralogical and geochemical tools are also essential to establishing a link between the basic physical and chemical processes that occur during the production, hardening, service life, and degradation of concrete.
Current Geochemical Society members can access this issue now via the Elements website using your email address (UserID) and member number (Password).
Elements: Cascadia Subduction Zone
January 02, 2023
The canonical Cascadia subduction zone runs along the west coast of North America from Canada to northern California. The issue will emphasize the region as a historically important location for the development of ideas in subduction zone science, a place for understanding the compound hazards of a subduction zone in a populous region, and as a location where science is now moving beyond the traditional disciplinary confines to embrace multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. The Cascadia subduction zone is a natural laboratory for exploring ideas related to evolving subduction zone geometry and seismicity, melt transport, and the controls on eruptions. This issue will describe our current understanding of the combined tectonic and magmatic systems in this important subduction system.
Current Geochemical Society members can access this issue now via the Elements website using your email address (UserID) and member number (Password).
Elements: Organic Biomarkers
November 17, 2022
Biomarkers are molecular fossils that are preserved in a wide range of environmental archives (e.g., soils, sediments, sedimentary rocks, and petroleum systems). This issue introduces biomarkers and their compoundspecific stable isotope compositions to study fundamental biogeochemical processes and their application as proxies for environmental and climate reconstructions. Molecular biosignatures can be used to study the evolution of life, transitions in ocean plankton over time, the microbiota of extreme environments such as hydrothermal systems and the deep crustal biosphere, and to search for signs of life beyond Earth. Important new discoveries are typically the result of the development and deployment of improved instrumental techniques, multidisciplinary research approaches, and the combination of organic biogeochemistry with the new tools of molecular biology.
Current Geochemical Society members can access this issue now via the Elements website using your email address (UserID) and member number (Password).
Elements: Halogens: From Planetary Surfaces to Interiors
October 06, 2022
The halogen-group elements (F, Cl, Br, and I) are common in the terrestrial inventory, though often present in trace amounts in many Earth and planetary materials. The halogens play a key role in a variety of geologic environments and processes, from mineralization to their influence on the composition of Earth's atmosphere when released as oceanic, volcanogenic, and anthropogenic emissions. Halogens act as "fingerprints" of fluidmediated processes on Earth and other planetary bodies. These "bioessential" elements are also critically important to human health. In this issue of Elements, we explore the role that the halogens play in shaping diverse planetary systems, from the surface of planets to their interiors. We also review the techniques that are suitable for the analysis of halogen elements and of isotopes of Cl and Br in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials.
Current Geochemical Society members can access this issue now via the Elements website using your email address (UserID) and member number (Password).
Recent Articles and Blog Posts from the GS/EAG DEI Writing Teams
May 03, 2022
- Strengthening Geochemistry Through Community Action and Wider Influence: http://www.elementsmagazine.org/archives/e17_4/e17_4_soc_EAG.pdf
- Professional Culture: Let’s talk tackling of inequity, injustice, and absent talent: https://blog.eag.eu.com/news/professional-culture-lets-talk-tackling-of-inequity-injustice-and-absent-talent/
- Pourret et al. 2021. Diversity, Equity, and inclusion: Tackling under-representation and recognition of talents in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. GCA 310, pp 363-371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2021.05.054
- Pourret et al. 2021. Diversity among editorial boards of Elements and other selected geochemistry, cosmochemistry, mineralogy, and petrology journals. Elements, June 2021. http://elementsmagazine.org/2021/06/01/diversity-among-editorial-boards/
- Check out the EAG DEI blog for more: https://blog.eag.eu.com/categories/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
Stuart Wakeham Receives Treibs Award from OGD
April 27, 2022
Prof. Stuart Wakeham, Emeritus Professor of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, was recently named the 2021 recipient of the Alfred Treibs Award. Presented by the society's Organic Geochemistry Division, the award is given for major achievements, over a period of years, in organic geochemistry. Prof. Wakeham is recognized for pioneering work on fluxes and compositional changes of marine organic matter at the molecular level, on microbial biomarkers in marine oxygen-deficient zones, and on molecular proxies.