At the 2015 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting the American Geosciences Institute recognized Rodney C. Ewing with the Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell for Superlative Service in the Geosciences. Over his career, Ewing has bridged disciplines to develop new applications of geologic and materials sciences and advanced science itself in the publications of interest. It is especially noteworthy that he has served and continues to serve, on many advisory committees and policy boards focused on nuclear energy and the environment. He continues to provide timely, thoughtful, scientific leadership in the policy arena related to the disposal of the nation's high-level radioactive waste.

The existence of seafloor sediments containing valuable minerals and metals has been known since the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until the 1960s that the earliest attempts to recover mineral wealth from the deep sea were made. Technical challenges, as well as discoveries in the 1970s of more economical and previously unknown terrestrial mineral deposits, shelved the idea until the 1990s. Today, the surging demand for rare minerals, driven largely by their use in modern electronics, along with technological advancements and the discovery of mineral-rich seafloor massive sulfides, has now made the high cost of extraction worthwhile.