Events & Courses

Bicentennial Anniversary of Smith's Revolutionary Map

Part of the GSA's Annual Meeting

The GSA's Pardee Symposium will feature Keynote Speaker, Professor Hugh Torrens. Professor Torrens will open with an examination of Smith's highly complex early 'career paths'.

The programme will then flow into 3 complementary segments of invited talks

1. Past, contemporary and future-directed mapping in difficult places (seafloor, mantle, planets) and the strategic technologies required for such mapping
2. Geological mapping and 3D data sets in relation to natural resources and sustainability.
3. Conceptual and philosophical views of mapping and reasoning.

The inaugural GSA Geological Mapping Award will be announced and conferred at this Baltimore meeting.

Meeting details

GSA envisions the interdisciplinary Pardee Session to be a core programmatic foundation for the celebration, which will be linked to other engaging, celebratory sessions and activities during the Annual Meeting such as:

• A field excursion to view the 1815 William Smith Map at the Academy of Science in Philadelphia
• A field excursion to view the C&O Canal, Washington, D.C.
• related topical sessions such as The Great Images in Geology (History and Philosophy of Geology Division), and the AASG Session on Third Century of William Smith Geological Mapping Vision.
• A public lecture by Simon Winchester author of The Map that Changed the World.  Lecture sponsored by the Geology and Society Division.
• Also a William Smith re-enactor will roam the conference halls, receptive to any and all questions
• Student engagement activities which emphasize social media eg. videos, blogs, poems and pictures, will be designed and executed by student leadership from GSA's newly formed Student Advisory Council

For more information visit the GSA conference website

Sponsors of the GSA's Smith Celebration include:

• Geological Society of London
• History and Philosophy of Geology Division
• Sedimentary Geology Division
• Geology and Society Division
• Association of American State Geologists
• History of Earth Sciences Society
• Paleontology Society