Alexandria, VA — Hundreds of thousands of tiny white-nosed bats have died over the past few winters, falling to cave floors across the eastern United States. The killer is White Nose Syndrome, a mysterious disease inflicted by an unusual cold-loving fungus that attacks bats while they are hibernating. Come spring, as few as 5 percent of the bats in heavily infected roosts are still alive. More than 2 million bats have already been killed by the disease. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geological Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce Dr. Robert H. Dott, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of Geoscience of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as the recipient of the 2011 Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal. Established in 1999, the award is presented to a geoscientist who has demonstrated a long history of scientific achievement and exceptional service to the geoscience profession. Dr. Dott received his B.S. and M. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — Dr. P. Patrick Leahy, American Geological Institute (AGI) Executive Director has been appointed as a Commissioner to the U.S. National Commission to United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by Secretary of State Clinton. Founded in 1945 to contribute to peace and security, UNESCO promotes collaboration among the nations through education, science, and culture. Today, the United States has two UNESCO affiliations, one at the Permanent Mission in Paris and the U. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geological Institute (AGI) is now accepting advance orders for the 2011 Earth Science Week Toolkit. The kit contains educational materials for all ages that correspond to this year’s theme of “Our Ever-Changing Earth.” The Toolkit will be sent in August 2011. The 2011 Earth Science Week Toolkit provides the traditional theme-related activity calendar and classroom activity poster published by AGI. It also features a variety of educational resources from program partners, including: [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The American Geological Institute (AGI) has made available the recorded version of the webinar roundtable “A Secure Future for Energy, Environment and Hazard Mitigation: Retaining students through the Student-to-Professional Continuum in the Geosciences.” The geoscience profession is facing critical human resource issues as a result of its aging workforce and low number of new graduates entering core geoscience occupations. Data from the National Science Foundation’s statistical databases indicates that only 35 percent of geoscience graduates work in core geoscience occupations. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA—The American Geological Institute (AGI) is offering Earth Science Toolkits at a discounted price of $5.00 each until the end of May, 2011. Each year educators, scout leaders and community organizers use the Earth Science Week Toolkits to introduce students and the public to the wonders of earth science. AGI is selling these educational toolkits from several previous years at a substantial discount to encourage expanded instruction on key topics from energy and climate to outdoor learning and geoscience careers. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — Last fall, EARTH caught up with geochemistry grad student Jeremy Jacquot as he was about to embark on the first U.S.-led GEOTRACES cruise across the Atlantic, where he and 32 researchers were hoping to measure and track concentrations of various trace elements and isotopes. This month, in “Tracking Trace Elements and Isotopes in the Oceans”, we follow up with Jacquot as he details the highs, lows and initial findings from the cruise, which was unfortunately cut short due to a ship malfunction. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA – The geoscience profession is facing critical human resource issues as a result of its aging workforce and low number of new graduates entering core geoscience occupations. Since the mid-1990’s the geoscience degree completion rates have hovered near 12 percent for undergraduates and 20 percent for graduate students. Furthermore, data from the National Science Foundation’s 2006 statistical databases indicates that only 30 percent of geoscience graduates work in core geoscience occupations. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — ExxonMobil Corporation will receive the American Geological Institute (AGI) 2011 Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Public Understanding of the Geosciences. The award will be presented at the AGI Past Presidents Dinner during the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention in Houston on April 10. “This award recognizes efforts to create greater public appreciation and knowledge of the role the geosciences play in our society,” said Dr. [Read More]

Alexandria, VA — The YES Network and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) will host a townhall meeting at the 2011 European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna, Austria from 19:00-20:00 on April 5. This event will address some of the key factors in aligning graduate aspirations with employer needs. Event speakers will include representatives from geoscience early-career networks, geoscience employers, recent geoscience graduates, and current geoscience students. [Read More]