|
This year’s annual meeting of the Geological Society of America was held in
Portland, Oregon during 18-21 October, 2009. It was organized at the Oregon
Convention Center. This conference was attended by over 6,400 geologists,
educators, researchers and industry professionals mainly from the USA and
Canada but several others from rest of the world. The technical programs
covered diverse subjects of Earth and Environmental Sciences ranging from
Archaeological Geology to Volcanology and several others like Economic and
Engineering Geology, Environmental Geoscience, Geoinformatics, Geology and
Health, Geoscience Education, Information and Communication, Planetary
Geology and Public Policy in addition to all the core disciplines of
Geology.
There were four lunch time keynote lectures, and geology and public policy
events. These lectures were on carbon sequestration and global warming,
climate change impacts on society, geosciences legislation and public
policy. There were several geological field trips during, before and after
the meeting mainly in the states of Oregon and Washington in the
northwestern corner of the USA. Short courses of specific geological
interest were also offered. Several awards were given to people for their
outstanding contributions that were followed by lectures. There were group
alumni receptions of various US colleges and universities. I attended and
enjoyed my own Michigan State University alumni reception.
Of special interest to Paleontologists was, session T92 entitled “In the
footsteps of Darwin the geologist: Celebrating Darwin’s 200th birth
anniversary.” This was followed by a very lively panel discussion on
“Overcoming resistance to the reality of evolutionary change in nature.” On
the same day another session T120: “Darwin, geology, and evolution: Impact
of Darwinian views on scientific theory making.” was held in the afternoon.
The conference was well organized but attendance from the developing world
was limited due to travel and visa restrictions, a US $ 30.00 abstract
admission fee on top of US $ 499.00 registration fee. This will be
considered high for people from the developing countries. There were few
Indian geologists at this meeting but several geologists of Indian origin
represented different countries. Several exhibitors from universities,
publishers, geological associations and organizations, professional
societies and mineral companies had their booths at this conference.
On a personal note I met Prof. Ralph Taggart, Chairman, Department of
Geological Sciences, Michigan State University (MSU) and found time to
reminisce my graduate student days (during 1973-76) and talked about Prof.
Aureal T. Cross and his former students and my classmates who have take
position of leadership in both academia and industry. We had long wonderful
geological field trips across USA and Mexico. I met another MSU geology
faculty Prof. Warren Wood who also holds an adjunct professorship at the
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at my present location at
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I
also found time to spend with one of my former MSU classmate and dear friend
Dr. Lanny Fisk who owns a very successful company PaleoResource Consultants,
a paleontological resource mitigation company in Sacramento, California.
It was a great learning and socializing experience for me. This GSA meeting
showed us the future direction of geological teaching, learning, research
and its impact on present and future environmental, economic, natural
resource and health related challenges.
Arun Kumar
Center for
Petroleum and Minerals, Research Institute
King Fahd
University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM)
Dhahran
31261, Saudi Arabia |
