Honoring AGU Members

Two AGU members were honored at the 2014 Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium in Perth, Australia. Bryson Bates, adjunct professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering at the University of Adelaide, in Australia, was selected as the Munro Orator. Bates, who was selected by Australia’s National Committee on Water Engineering in conjunction with the symposium’s organizers, delivered his keynote speech at the symposium on 25 February. Thomas Christopher Pagano, senior hydrologist with Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, received the G. N. Alexander medal. Pagano was honored for his involvement as coauthor of the paper “Evaluation of numerical weather prediction model precipitation forecasts for short-term streamflow forecasting purpose,” which was published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.

Robert D. Hatcher, distinguished scientist and professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and former president of the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), was awarded the 2014 Marcus Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal by AGI’s executive committee. Hatcher was chosen for “his achieving legendary status for his lifetime of commitment to field mapping-based research, combining the latest geophysical, geochemical, isotopic, and modeling techniques,” according to AGI. Hatcher received the medal on 6 April, during an award ceremony at the annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in Houston, Texas.

Peter Kelemen, Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor in Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, was among the faculty members recently honored with Columbia University’s Lenfest Distinguished Teaching Award.

Katherine Klink, associate professor in the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, was elected to serve on the nominating committee of the Association of American Geographers.

Brian Luzum is the new scientific director of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). Luzum previously was the head of the Earth Orientation Department at USNO. He is also director of USNO’s International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) Rapid Service/Prediction Center, which provides information about Earth’s rotation and orientation and about planetary bodies and maintains the master clock for the United States.

William Spitzer, vice president for planning, programs, and exhibits at the New England Aquarium, in Boston, Mass., was recognized at the White House in March as a “Champion of Change.” The award was designed to honor citizens who are “doing extraordinary things at a local level.”

The U.S. National Geospatial Advisory Committee recently appointed new members, including Harvey Thorleifson, director of the Minnesota Geological Survey, who will serve a 3-year term on the committee.

Features from AGU Journals