The President’s Awards for 2019 are made to Oliver Dabson for the quality of his work with Jacobs and his academic publication record; and Nicole Duffin for the quality of her work with Shell and her work with the Society on the Science Committee and last year’s William Smith Conference.
The results were as follows:
Dr Kathryn Goodenough 1,544 (75.7%)
Ms Gemma Sherwood 1,495 (73.3%)
Mrs Sarah Scott 1,326 (65.0%)
Dr Joel Gill 1,186 (58.1%)
Mr Andrew Moore 1,088 (53.3%)
_________________________________
Prof Quentin Crowley 863 (42.3%)
Dr Stephen Laubach 570 (27.9%)
The five candidates receiving the most votes will go forward to the
Annual General Meeting on 6 June 2019 for election as Council members.
Notification of Officers for 2019/2020
At the AGM, Fellows will be asked to elect the following members of Council as Officers for 2019/20:
President:
Prof Nicholas Rogers
Vice-Presidents:
Mr John Booth
Mr Nicholas Reynolds
Miss Jessica Smith
Mr John Talbot
Secretaries:
Prof Katherine Royse
Prof Robin Strachan
Dr Alexander Whittaker
Secretary, Foreign & External Affairs:
Dr Sarah Gordon
Treasurer:
Mr Graham Goffey
President’s Day
President’s Day at Burlington House on Thursday, 6 June will begin with the Annual General Meeting at 11.00am followed by a buffet lunch with the award winners (members with ticket only—£28.00 per head).
As in previous years, the recipients of the major medals have been invited to give a short talk on their subject, and the Awards Ceremony will be followed by presentations by the Lyell, Murchison, William Smith and Wollaston medallists (details on the website:
https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GSL-Presidents-Day-2019).
The timetable for President’s Day and the agenda for the AGM are below. To obtain luncheon tickets please send cheques (payable to the Geological Society) to Stephanie Jones at Burlington House or email
[email protected].
Please also contact Stephanie if you wish to attend the afternoon events for which there is no charge.
Annual Fellowship subscriptions for 2020
Since 2015, the annual increase in Fellowship fees has been set with reference to the prevailing annual rate of Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation when proposals are considered for the following year in March and April. The rate of CPI for January 2019 was 1.8%. Inflation has recently been on a downward trend and in recent months has been fairly static.
It is forecast to rise slightly in the coming months and though the effects of an exit from the EU is unknown, it is projected to be in the 2.0% - 2.2% range during 2020. It is an established principle that the fellowship fees should be set at a level commensurate with the cost of providing the fellowship services provided, therefore an increase in line with CPI has been recommended.
At its meeting on 17 April, Council will discuss the subscription rates for 2020 shown below. An increase of 1.8% has been recommended. Due to rounding, not all categories are adjusted and the maximum fee payable will be £214, up by £4 on the equivalent 2019 rate. Once ratified by Council, these rates will be recommend to the Fellowship for approval at the Annual General Meeting.
Future meeting dates
OGMs: 19 June 2019, 17 September 2019, 20 November 2019, 5 February 2020, 8 April 2020
Council: 19 June 2019, 17 & 18 September 2019 (residential), 20 November 2019, 5 February 2020, 8 April 2020
Cover competition results
The results are in and we’re thrilled to announce that the winner of our cover competition is Elizabeth Pickett. Congratulations!
To mark the 100th anniversary of female Fellowship of the Society, we asked you to send us an image that celebrates women in geoscience, whether past or present. We received many fantastic entries—a big thank you to all those who contributed.
It was a tough choice and we eventually whittled the entries down to three wonderfully creative and striking submissions. But, there could only be one winner, and so the top prize goes to Elizabeth Pickett for her stunningly detailed, original gouache painting portraying two female field geologists, 100 years apart, in the same (imaginary) field location. Elizabeth writes:
“Although knowledge, understanding and technology have developed enormously since 1919, the rocks are still fundamentally the same, as are many aspects of geological fieldwork. Today's geologist is building on foundations, both geological and societal, laid down by her pioneering 1919 predecessor. Despite the differences in their situations, they can still reach across the time gap to discuss the geology of an area and share observations and ideas—I like to think they'd have lots to discuss!”
© Elizabeth Pickett
Eye-catching and beautiful illustrations from Lauren Moore, depicting the diversity of female geoscientists through time, and Nicola Dakin, depicting Mary Anning, one of the first recognised female palaeontologists of the 19th Century, came in as close runners up.
You can read more about the competition winners and see the entries in more detail on our webpage here:
www.geolsoc.org.uk/covercompetition
Earth Science Week 2019
This year’s Earth Science Week is taking place on 12-20 October, with a theme of ‘Geoscience is for everyone.’ An annual celebration of the geology all around us, Earth Science Week is coordinated by the American Geoscience Institute in the US, and the Geological Society in the UK & Ireland. The week also takes place in an increasing number of countries around the world.
Events include lectures, geology walks, family activity days and workshops, organised by institutions and individuals around the country. Last year, a number of our Regional Groups got involved, alongside Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, the North West Highlands Geopark, National Museums Scotland and many more.
Find out more about Earth Science Week on our website at
www.geolsoc.org.uk/earthscienceweek. A number of small grants are available from the Geological Society to help with running your event—details on how to apply will be available on our website soon. If you would like to organise an event, find out more or discuss your ideas, please get in touch with us via
[email protected].
100 years of female Fellows: Oral history project
Sarah Day calls on female Fellows to recount their stories
2019 marks the 100th anniversary of female Fellowship of the Geological Society. Throughout the year we will be highlighting the work of our pioneering early members, as well as celebrating the contributions women have made to the geosciences before and since. Find out more about the anniversary at
www.geolsoc.org.uk/100years.
As part of this project, we’re embarking on an oral history project in partnership with our History of Geology Group to capture the memories of female Fellows; particularly those who have been members for a long period of time. In doing so, we hope to both enhance our oral history archives, and provide a more balanced and accurate representation of the Society’s heritage.
If you have memories you would like to share with us, whether via interview or more informally, we would love to hear from you. Please contact
[email protected], or write to us at:
Oral History Project
The Geological Society of London
Burlington House, Piccadilly
London W1J0BG
Chartership news
Chartered Fellows elected March 2019
CGeol: Massimo Antonelli, Dario Avagliano, Jessica Charles, Thomas David Desmond Curran, Nicola Daniele, Hywel Gwrthefyr Davies, Payal Debroy, Stephen Joseph Dixon, Timothy John Downes, Katherine Alexandra Elizabeth Edwards, Robert David Fordham, Lyndsey Fletcher, Ruth Leala Jacobs, Rigilia Lau Chu Leh, Pak Wing Leung, George Lawrence Lloyd Mitchell, Nicholas Charles Peters, Robert Colin Pugh, Silvia Terzuoli, John Wilton
CSci: Fiona Waldron, Anthony Windsor
Mentoring
An update on mentoring from Bill Gaskarth
The Mentoring Workshop scheduled for 26th March was cancelled because there were too few registrants to make it viable.
The Society is committed to the provision of mentoring support for Chartership Applicants. At present, companies with Accredited Training Schemes are required to provide their trainees with a mentor to guide their professional development. Trainees in these companies therefore get the necessary support and many companies have sent people to the GSL workshops or have organised ‘in house’ mentor training.
The Society maintains a list of Chartered Fellows who have offered to help any early career Fellow looking towards Chartership. This support is largely in the form of coaching/advising in the late stages of an application. Such help has been useful to a number of people who work in companies where a mentor is not available, usually due to the size of the company. We wish to continue to offer this service, but the numbers offering help have shrunk to a low level following the introduction of GDPR, when many former Mentors did not sign up again.
Experienced CGeols who are willing to be contacted for help by early career geologists are asked to contact the Chartership Officer (
[email protected]) with their details. In the meantime, the Regional Groups are encouraged to see if they have members who could help develop ‘self-help’ groups for aspiring applicants. The Chartership Officer is always available to visit and advise groups or companies.
Those that attended greatly appreciated the workshops run by the Society. We intend to offer more in the future, along the lines of previous workshops that give attendees an appreciation of what mentoring entails and how to avoid pitfalls. The Chartership and Professional Committees is also considering the possibility of developing Webinars covering this introductory area and perhaps others that offer training beyond the preliminary level.
A form for reporting annual professional development and training is available on the Society’s web site
www.geolsoc.org.uk/Membership/Chartership-and-Professional/Applicants.
Society Discussion Group Programme: 2019
Meetings of the Geological Society Discussion Group are 18.30 for 19.00, when dinner is served. Attendance is open to all members of the Society. For up to date information concerning topics for discussion and speakers, please go to
W: www.geolsoc.org.uk/Groups-and-Networks/Specialist-Groups/Geological-Society-Discussion-Group.
- 11 June - The Athenaeum
- 18 September - The King's Head
- 23 October - Bumpkins Restaurant
- 04 December - The Athenaeum
Please contact Sarah Woodcock for more information and to make a reservation.
E: [email protected]