Ross Taylor (1925-2021)
May 24, 2021
Stuart Ross Taylor, Goldschmidt Medalist (1993) and Geochemistry Fellow, passed away in Canberra, Australia on May 23, 2021, surrounded by family. Ross was a geochemist who made seminal contributions to our understanding of the origin and evolution of Earth's continental crust, and the composition and origin of the Moon, meteorites, tektites, and the solar system. Born in Ashburton, New Zealand in 1925, he received a BSc and MSc Hons from the University of New Zealand followed by a PhD in 1954 at the University of Indiana, USA, where he studied under fellow Kiwi Brian Mason. Taylor was Mason's only PhD student and Mason himself was the last PhD student of Victor Moritz Goldschmidt. Following his PhD, Ross became a tenured lecturer at Oxford University where he worked with Louis Ahrens and built an emission spectroscopy laboratory. There he met Noël, the love of his life, who was working on organic crystallography with Dorothy Hodgkin. They married in 1958 just before Ross accepted an appointment as a senior lecturer in geochemistry at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he began his work on the origin of tektites, mysterious glassy droplets found strewn over large regions of Earth. In 1961 he was recruited by John Jaeger to the ANU as a senior fellow in geophysics and in 1962 became a professorial fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences where he spent the remainder of his career. At ANU he set up an emission spectrograph and later a spark-source mass spectrometer to analyze trace elements at unprecedented detection levels and precision. There he continued his work on tektites, establishing that they are terrestrial in origin and generated at meteorite impact sites. Shortly thereafter, Ross was invited to join the preliminary analysis team for the Apollo 11 and 12 missions and he produced the first geochemical analyses of lunar return samples. Ross went on to become a world expert on lunar composition and origin. He also focused his spectrometers on terrestrial samples such as andesites and sedimentary rocks, developing the andesite model for crustal origin and defining the composition of the upper continental crust through the analyses of terrigenous sediments (shales and loess). Over his prolific career Ross published more than 240 papers and nine books. He received a myriad of honors, including the Goldschmidt Award of the Geochemical Society, the Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society, the Bucher Medal from the American Geophysical Union, election to Australian Academy of Sciences, foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, Companion of the Order of Australia, and the naming of asteroid 5670 Rosstaylor. Despite these lofty accomplishments, Ross was always humble and kind and widely loved by his students, post-docs, and colleagues. A student of history, he always had interesting historical anecdotes to share, as anyone who has read the footnotes in his books will know. Ross is survived by his wife of 63 years, Noël Taylor, daughters Judith, Susanna, and Helen, grandson Angelo, and son-in-law Michael.
Roberta L. Rudnick, UC Santa Barbara
Dates Announced for Upcoming Goldschmidt Conferences
May 06, 2021
The GS and EAG are pleased to announce that the 2022 Goldschmidt Conference will take place in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, USA and online from July 10-15. This follows the cancellation of the in-person meeting originally scheduled in Honolulu last year. Plans were well underway for field trips, workshops, and social events to give delegates opportunities to explore the geology and culture of the Aloha State. Many of these events will now take place during next year's meeting. Hybrid components will provide remote participation options, as well.
Dates for the following conferences are also confirmed:
- July 9-14, 2023 • Location to be determined
- August 18-25, 2024 • Chicago, Illinois, USA
Günter W. Lugmair (1940-2021)
April 20, 2021
Cosmophysicist Günter W. Lugmair passed away on March 31. He received the Geochemical Society's V. M. Goldschmidt Award in 2007. It was one of many honors that he received over the course of a distinguished career.
Call for Nominations: Goldschmidt Special Lectures
December 10, 2020
The GS is seeking nominations from the community for three lectures to be presented next July at Goldschmidt2021. The F. Earl Ingerson Lecture is open to any geochemical topic with broad appeal. The Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecture recognizes a prominent scientist who is making cutting-edge field-based measurements or laboratory measurements on field samples in biogeochemistry. The lecture honoring Robert Berner (presented jointly with EAG) includes a wide range of topics associated with elemental cycling at the Earth's surface. The nominations deadline for all three lectures is Jan. 8, 2021.
Learn more about the Berner Lecture
Learn more about the Endowed Biogeochemistry Lecture
Learn more about the Ingerson Lecture
Town Hall: Mentoring in Geochemistry
November 18, 2020
The Geochemical Society is pleased to announce our second town hall on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics: Mentoring in Geochemistry--A tool for creating more inclusive and equitable environments. Join us on Thursday, December 3 from 4:00 - 5:30pm EST for an online discussion open to the entire geochemistry community. Learn more
Sam Savin Receives Distinguished Service Award
June 25, 2020
Sam Savin, the retired Provost of the New College of Florida (USA) will receive the Geochemical Society's Distinguished Service Award for 2020. Dr. Savin is recognized for his service as treasurer of the society from 2011-19. During his tenure, the society increased its reserve fund, moved to a fully electronic accounting system, and consistently received clean audit opinions. Dr. Savin also oversaw a shift toward socially responsible investing for the society's reserves. Before his election as treasurer, he served for three years as a director. The Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding service to the GS and/or the geochemical community that greatly exceeds the normal expectations of voluntary service.
GS-EAG Town Hall Discussion: Black Lives Matter-Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Geochemistry
June 09, 2020
In these times of seismic events in human history, and national and indeed global awakening to a multitude of injustices, many societies and organizations are issuing statements to affirm their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and to end racism, discrimination, and violence against Blacks and other minority groups the world over. The Geochemical Society (GS) and the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) know that more needs to be done to create a society that embraces the ideals of human decency, fairness, and social and economic justice. The aim of this town hall meeting is to listen to our community members and to hear their thoughts on how to fight racism, increase diversity and equity in our discipline, and make the GS, the EAG, and the Goldschmidt meeting safe and inclusive for all.
The meeting will be held this Friday, June 12 (noon PDT, 3 pm EDT, 9 pm CET) and is open to all. We propose to focus the discussion on recent events and hear the perspectives of participants. To allow wide and inclusive participation, we invite members to submit questions beforehand using the link below. Participants may also make brief comments or ask questions during the town hall. We seek to hear ideas on how our two societies can make real and lasting progress towards our DEI goals, and effectively communicate these measures to our membership and beyond.
Panelists include:
- Magali Ader, Inst. Physics du Globe, Paris
- Asmeret Asefaw Behre, UC Merced
- Emily Cooperdock, University of Southern California
- James W. Dottin III, University of Maryland
- Benjamin Keisling, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
- Penny King, The Australian National University
- Jabrane Labidi, Inst. Physics du Globe, Paris
- Cin-Ty Lee, Rice University
- Samuel Mukasa, University of Minnesota
- Aradhna Tripati, UCLA
GS Response to the Minneapolis Tragedy
June 04, 2020
Dear Geochemical Society Members,
Recent events in the United States, including the violent death of George Floyd and other African Americans, highlight the systemic discrimination and racism persistent in the US and globally. We are shocked, deeply distressed and share in the sadness. Black lives matter and inappropriate use of police force must stop.
As a Society, the promotion of inclusivity and diversity in science is in our core mission. Striving to achieve this is a daily and continuing goal and is incorporated into all our Society's activities. This is reflected in our public stand on equity and diversity and our enforced code of conduct for members.
The horrific events of the past several months confront us with the depths of ongoing inequity, discrimination and bias. As a professional society we must and will redouble our on-going efforts to provide an inclusive and supportive professional environment free of discrimination and harassment. We will continue, proactively and intentionally, to work to be more inclusive, educate ourselves about institutional racism and unconscious bias, and strive to increase the diversity of our Society. This is done on behalf of all our members and because scientific advancement in service of society requires a thriving, globally diverse, and inclusive community of scholars.
We draw your attention to a long-planned, up-coming workshop on June 24 associated with our virtual Goldschmidt Conference: Diversity and Inclusion in the Geosciences – Pitfalls, Unconscious Bias and Practical Solutions, which will provide a timely forum to discuss these issues and ways we can make progress on our goals.
| Vickie Bennett President Canberra, Australia |
Sumit Chakraborty Vice President Bochum, Germany |
Roberta Rudnick Past President Santa Barbara, CA, USA |
Meet the Scientist: Angus Rogers
May 21, 2020
Name: Angus Rogers
Institution: Monash University
Place of Residence: Melbourne, Australia
What kind of science do you do?
I'm an igneous petrologist, and I use isotope geochemistry to investigate ocean island basalts. Sounds riveting, hey? Normally I try to think about it as "shooting laser beams at underwater volcanoes."
Announcement about 2020 Goldschmidt Conference
April 03, 2020
Each year, the Goldschmidt Conference travels to a part of the world to bring together the geochemistry community to share the latest developments in the field as well as supporting, training and encouraging colleagues at the start their careers. Goldschmidt 2020 will be the 30th conference in the series.
The health and safety of our community is our highest priority. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the GS and EAG have determined that the conference cannot be held as scheduled in Honolulu. Instead, Goldschmidt 2020 will become the first virtual edition of the conference.
With travel costs and visa requirements removed, we hope that this year's conference will be accessible to more people than ever. The conference will continue to highlight the contributions to the field resulting from scientific observations made in Hawai'i and Oceania.
While a virtual meeting can never entirely replace the networking capacity of a standard meeting, there will be many opportunities to connect with your colleagues virtually, share and discuss new work, and get involved with the programs for early career researchers at the virtual event.
All those who have already registered for the standard meeting will be automatically registered for the virtual experience. You will be contacted directly with regards to reimbursement aligned with the new, reduced pricing structure. Social event, workshop, field trip, childcare and lunch box fees will be refunded automatically.
Details of how events will be presented are still to be confirmed and we will be in touch with colleagues affected when we can provide full instructions for the next steps. We appreciate your patience as we adapt to these very challenging times.