DIVISION COLUMNS ARCHIVES

Houston Courses Set

DEG Appreciates Grant for Journal

By STEVEN P. TISCHER

DEG President

DEG Web Site

DEG Announces 2005 Awardees

The Division of Environmental Geosciences has announced its award winners for 2005.

Award winners will be honored at the DEG luncheon during the AAPG Annual Convention in Houston.

The DEG award winners are:

President's Award -- Charles G. "Chip" Groat.

Research Award (2) -- Craig Bethke and James Otton.

Teaching Award -- Kerry Sublette.

Public Outreach Award -- John D. Kiefer.

Certificate of Merit awards (5) -- Kenneth D. Vogel, Mary L. Barrett, Charles Chris Steincamp, Susan Eaton and Paula Sillman.

Corporate Award for Excellence in Environmental Stewardship -- ExxonMobil (for the Health and Safety Field Manual).

As stated in the September EXPLORER, AAPG Executive Director Rick Fritz and President Peter Rose initiated 2005-06 as the "Year of the Divisions," and one of the benefits to the three Divisions is the availability of AAPG Foundation Grants for projects deemed commendable by the Foundation Board.

The Division of Environmental Geosciences is very grateful for the grant awarded by the Foundation for expenditures to publish our quarterly journal, Environmental Geosciences.

The Foundation Grant will allow the DEG editor and Executive Committee to determine if additional manuscripts will be added to Environmental Geosciences. Other potential uses for the grant monies will be special publications deemed worthy by the Executive Committee.

Again, I wish to sincerely thank the AAPG Foundation for the substantial grant for use to defray publication costs of our respected journal.

The DEG will have two short courses available at next year's AAPG Annual Convention, set for April 9-12 in Houston.

The first of the courses is titled "ASBOG (National Association of State Boards of Geology) Review -- Professional Geoscientists' Exam Review." This short course will assist a geologist, geophysicist and/or soil scientist with identifying materials to study and become familiar with to be able to pass the Professional Geoscientists' Exam. Once you pass the exam, the Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists awards the successful candidate as a licensed Professional Geoscientist.

The following states or protectorate have requirements for geoscientists to be able to be licensed to practice: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.

The next ASBOG exam for geologists in Texas will be offered on March 3, and the registration deadline for the March exam is January 17, 2006.

Visit http://www.asbog.org/ or http://www.tbpg.state.tx.us/ to get more information about the ASBOG exam.

The second short course will be "Field Safety Leadership Seminar," a one-and-a-half day field course that will teach the attendees to prepare a health and safety plan for a field trip.

The attendees will receive the Field Safety Leadership Manual that has been successfully taught at ExxonMobil for several years.

I hope you will be able to attend both of these important short courses set for Houston.

There always are opportunities to volunteer your service to the DEG, including:

• Continuing Education, Geohazards, Health and Safety and the Programs committees all need volunteers to assist with the important work they do for the DEG.
• The Continuing Education and Programs committees need a chair or vice-chair to guide and to make recommendations on how to move suggested ideas into the future.

Please review the responsibilities for each of these DEG committees on our Web page at http://deg.aapg.org/committees.cfm. I hope you will step up and be counted, and contribute your valued service to
the DEG!