AAPG member Robert Goldstein, associate dean for the natural sciences and mathematics at the University of Kansas, has been named the winner of this year’s AAPG Foundation Professorial Award.
The honor, determined by the AAPG Academic Liaison Committee and presented annually to a professor for “Excellence in the Teaching of Natural Resources in the Earth Sciences,” comes with a $1,000 prize from the AAPG Foundation.
Goldstein is the Haas Distinguished Professor in the school’s Department of Geology, where he has been a faculty member since 1985.
“I greatly appreciate receiving this award from the AAPG Foundation,” Goldstein said. “The nomination from my students and recommendation of my colleagues means a great deal.
“This honor is even more meaningful because it comes from AAPG,” he added, “an organization that truly represents my interests and those of the students I teach.”
Goldstein’s research program integrates large-scale fieldwork in various areas around the world and microscopic and geochemical analyses of mineral precipitates in pore systems of rocks. In particular, Goldstein has pioneered the fluid inclusion technique for determining the pressure, temperature and fluid chemistry of mineral precipitation.
“I truly love teaching at all levels, from Introduction to Geology to AAPG field seminars,” Goldstein said. “For me, teaching in the geosciences is all about helping students to think and see; it is incredibly rewarding work.”
He is the second person to receive the award; the 2013 inaugural winner was Grant Wach, petroleum geoscience professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.
An interview with Goldstein will be featured in the May EXPLORER.