It turns out that the GSA Annual Meeting wasn’t the only event taking place in Baltimore this afternoon…

I started the afternoon with a really special event, the GSA Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony. There were two short presentations on the “State of the Society” and a GSA Foundation update, then a longer presentation by GSA President Jonathan Price titled “The World is Changing.” I jotted down a few highlights from his talk:

• The future is bright for the geosciences
• Demand is high for nearly every mineral resource
• We are in the midst of the biggest gold-mining boom in history
• The resources that society needs are changing
• Climate is changing, with many opportunities for geoscientists to contribute to mitigation and adaptation
• The world is changing, and we are directly measuring those changes with tools such as GPS, which allows us to integrate the data into earthquake prediction
• The best and the brightest are joining our profession (including more women)
• The profession has been (and still is changing) from geology to geological scientist to earth scientist to geoscientist… and the international mining community just call everyone “geo”

Then, the newest members of GSA Fellowship were called up one-by-one to shake the hand of GSA President Price. I was honored to be one of 73 GSA members that were elected to society fellowship. What does it mean to be a GSA Fellow?

Society Fellowship is an honor bestowed on the best of our profession by election at the spring GSA Council meeting. GSA members are nominated by existing GSA Fellows in recognition of their distinguished contributions to the geosciences through such avenues as publications, applied research, teaching, administration of geological programs, contributing to the public awareness of geology, leadership of professional organizations, and taking on editorial, bibliographic, and library responsibilities. —  New GSA Fellows webpage

And my conference name badge received two new ribbons! (The “I’m a geoscientist” pin is from the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) – one of my favorite pieces of “swag” from geo conferences!)

After catching up with some colleagues that I haven’t seen since my last geology conference, I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed over to the business meeting of the Council on Undergraduate Research – Geoscience Division (GeoCUR). I serve as an elected councilor for GeoCUR, where we focus our efforts on professional development for undergraduate research faculty mentors, and promoting opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in research. It is a great group of geoscience faculty from universities across the nation that share a common passion for undergraduate research opportunities and engaging in best practices for mentoring students.  (Although, secretly, I have to admit that I was disappointed to be missing author Simon Winchester speaking at the same time!)

My evening is being spent catching up on emails I’ve missed all day, reviewing a NSF proposal, and getting ready for Monday at GSA – never a moment of down-time at a conference!