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AGI Board of Directors

Carolyn Olson, President
David R. Wunsch, President Elect

AGI Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of the Geosciences

Submit  a Nomination:

AGI Award Guide (PDF)
Submit a Support Letter

For consideration for the 2023 Award, please submit materials by February 1, 2023. Submissions received after this date will be saved for later consideration.


This award is given for a contribution or contributions that lead to greater public appreciation and better understanding of the role of the geosciences in the affairs of our society.

Restrictions
This award normally will be given to one recipient per year.

Guidelines
The award is presented to a person, organization, or institution in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of the geosciences. The contribution may be in geoscience as a science or in geoscience as it relates to economic or environmental aspects of modern civilization. The award may be given to a geoscientist or non-geoscientist, or to an organization or an institution that is based in the geosciences or not. The award name was changed from the "AGI Award For Outstanding Contribution To Public Understanding of Geology" in 1999.

Selection Procedure
The Nominating Committee of the AGI Member Society Council will solicit nominations from its member societies and submit its selection to the Member Society Council at the spring meeting each year. The Member Society Council recommendation will then be transmitted to the AGI Executive Committee for final action.

Description of the Award
The award will be in the nature of an attractive scroll to include a citation of the specific contribution(s) which served as the basis of the award.

Presentation
The scroll will be presented by the President of the American Geosciences Institute or his/her representative at a function to provide the appropriate level of attention to the geoscience profession and the public at large. Details for presentation of the award, including the time of year and the place, will be at the discretion of the AGI Executive Committee.

Past Recipients

1985   

British Broadcasting Corporation for the television series The Making of a Continent

1986   

Stephen J. Gould and the Planet Earth television series (8 separate awards)

1987   

Robert Ferguson Legget and John McPhee

1988   

Robert E. Boyer

1989   

Robert L. Bates and Bruce B. Hanshaw

1990   

Robert D. Ballard for host activities for television science programs

1991   

U.S. Geological Survey for reporting and distributing natural hazards information

1992   

U.S. Geological Survey and Association of American State Geologists for National Geologic Mapping Act

1993   

Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr. and co-editor William J. Neal for book series, Living with the Shore, and John S. Shelton for capturing geological processes on film.

1994   

Fred A. Donath and E-an Zen

1995   

John R. Horner for work as paleontologist, teacher, author and museum curator and Richard Kerr, for work as editor of Science.

1996   

Albert (Brad) Washburn as founder and supporter of Boston Museum of Science

1997   

Sandra Glass for for her work with the earth science community over the years

1998   

M. Dane "Duke" Picard for his writings for lay persons and professionals

1999   

Esther and Sherwood Tuttle and Ann Harris for their National Parks work

2000   

AWARD NOT PRESENTED

2001   

John Noble Wilford for science correspondent contributions

2002   

Frank H. T. Rhodes for work as teacher, researcher, and administrator

2003   

Ron Redfern for written contributions on Earth evolution

2004   

Warren D. Allmon for Paleontological Research Institution renovation work

2005   

Michael Collier for geoscience writing and photography that engage the public

2006   

Joanne Kluessendorf who implemented the Wisconsin Weis Earth Science Museum

2007   

Simon Winchester for his three best-selling factual books on geological topics

2008   

Susan Solomon for work on climate change and ozone “hole”

2009   

Richard Alley for work using ice cores to demonstrate abrupt climate change.

2010   

ExxonMobil for support of science education programs

2011   

AWARD NOT PRESENTED

2012   

Thomas H. Jordan for international work on earthquakes and their hazards

2013   

Scott W. Tinker as Texas State Geologist, global future talks, and film Switch.

2014   

David R. Wunsch for work expanding New Hampshire Geological Survey outreach

2015   

Scott F. Burns for teaching and Pacific Northwest geologic media support

2016   

Mark D. Zoback for contributions to rock physics and geomechanics

2017   

Iain S. Stewart for communicating geoscience via YouTube and BBC TV series

2018   

David Applegate for his U.S. Geological Survey and earlier work to communicate Earth science

2019   

AWARD NOT PRESENTED

2020   

Peter Folger for his work at the Congressional Research Service

2021   

J. Marshall Shepherd for his outreach efforts on the topics of weather and climate

2022   

Lucile M. Jones for her work in earthquake awareness and community resilience


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