Dennis Trombatore to Receive the William B. Heroy Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to AGI

Alexandria, VA - Dennis Trombatore, long-time member and Chair of the GeoRef Advisory Committee, has been named the 2012 winner of the William B. Heroy Award for Distinguished Service to the American Geosciences Institute. Trombatore will be honored for his illustrious service at the AGI Past President’s Dinner held during the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 4, 2012.

Mr. Trombatore received his B.A. and MLS from Louisiana State University in 1975 and 1977, respectively. His extensive library science career began shortly thereafter: acting as the Common Curriculum Librarian at Loyola University for three years, and the Physical Sciences Bibliographer at the Science Library of the University of Georgia for five years. Currently, Mr. Trombatore is the Head Librarian for the Walter Geology Library and the Tobin International Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has worked for more than two decades. The University of Texas at Austin Department of Geological Sciences awarded him the Distinguished Service Award in 1997. In 2001, he received the University of Texas Staff Excellence Award and, in 2006, a Jackson School of Geosciences Staff Excellence Award. He is a member of GSA and the Geoscience Information Society, and is President-Elect of the Austin Geological Society.

Through his extensive career, Mr. Trombatore has helped to strengthen and improve the GeoRef Database, an AGI service established in 1966 that provides subscribers with access to more than 3.3 million references to geoscience journal articles, books, maps, conference papers, reports, theses, and more. With his help, GeoRef and its subscribers have gained access to unique materials in the libraries at the University of Texas at Austin. Furthermore, Trombatore represented AGI on the GeoScienceWorld Publisher’s Advisory Council and helped to strengthen the relationship between the two organizations. His knowledge and understanding of the library marketplace have been invaluable to AGI and its services.

The William B. Heroy Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to AGI is given in recognition of exceptional and beneficial long-term service to AGI. Each candidate is measured against the exemplary record of singular and long-term distinguished service by member William B. Heroy Jr., in whose honor the award is named.