Annual Report 2010: FY July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010
Visiting Geoscientist Program
Visiting geoscientists give a technical talk in an area of specialization as well as introduce students to possible career paths to facilitate their future in the geosciences. The speakers also may discuss relevant changes to the job market or present information about new technical challenges. The program also demonstrates the advantages of active participation in AAPG as well as increased interaction between industry and academic staff.
Coordination with other AAPG programs such as Student Chapter, Grants-in-Aid, Student Expo, IBA, YP, and Publications Pipeline are important to our efforts.
Some areas of note from this year and plans for future efforts include:
- Recognition Efforts: Future recognition of the Visiting Geoscientist with the greatest contribution of efforts for the year possibly given at the annual student reception.
- Visiting Geoscientist Tours: An AAPG funded VG tour was conducted this past year and it is expected to follow with many more. The response has been tremendous. AAPG Regions that are harder to reach will hopefully benefit from this initiative.
- Communication: The addition of the VGP committee page to myaapg.org is expected to increase our ability to communicate effectively. The AAPG website changes should be put into place within the upcoming year as well. The proposed updates should allow our VG’s to maintain their own profiles that universities use to request visits as well as provide an easier way for them to communicate their visits to AAPG headquarters.
- Publicity: The VGP brochure is being distributed around the world. A recognizable logo to associate with the program is also being completed. The VGP will begin to schedule digital billboard ads on the AAPG website to increase exposure in the upcoming months.
- Local Coordinators: The committee has assigned a local coordinator for every AAPG Section and Region. Each is responsible for connecting an area university with a VG lecturer for otherwise unfulfilled requests. Coordinators should also try to encourage more volunteers to join our efforts as visiting geoscientists.
- Recruitment: Among the many avenues currently used to recruit more AAPG visiting geoscientists. There is a new idea to encourage young professionals with an interest to partner on some visits with an existing VG in order to develop the skills necessary for visits of their own.
- VG Visits: Campus visits are currently distributed almost evenly between the U.S. Sections and International Regions as a whole. The balance within each of the two categories is varied and unbalanced from year to year. This variation is caused by many factors that include the concentration of volunteers within the area, corporate travel and time constraints, and accessibility in certain cases. Among the AAPG Regions, Asia Pacific and Europe hold a significant advantage in number of visits overall when compared to the other regions. Among AAPG Sections, Eastern Section followed by Gulf Coast benefitted from a higher number of visits. Universities that have or are working to start an AAPG Student Chapter maintain increased consideration for visits as a whole. This also contributes to the distribution variances.
The VGP Committee is striving to create a better balance of visits to geosciences departments around the world. This and effective coordination among our visiting geologist volunteers, geosciences university groups, and committee members remain our biggest challenges.
John Kaldi, Chair
Edith Wilson, Chair
Committee members: Carlos Abreu, Kunle Adeside, Bayo Akinpelu, Jim Bedford, Lee Billingsley, John Brooks, Chuck Caughey, Bob Cowdery, Roy Cox, John Dolson, Chris Heine, John Hogg, Bill Houston, John Kaldi (chair), Carrie Kidd, Peter Lloyd, John Lorenz, Shams Samsuddin, Fred Schroeder, Steve Shaw, Bob Shoup, Charlotte Sullivan, Betsy Torrez, and Edith Wilson (chair).