Geology and Geography.

The Geology and Geography Division had a very ambitious vision of what could be accomplished this year. We started with the idea that we would put on a symposium for our division. Knowing that climate change is a science-based topic of wide interest we set that as the topic and pursued a guest speaker to build the meeting around. In that effort we ended up with two speakers, one of whom is considered one of the foremost, if not the foremost, geologists working in this field. With such a high-powered set of speakers we felt this was too good to keep to ourselves and consulted with Dr. Benghuzzi on the idea of opening our event up to the Academy and to the public. He was very enthusiastic and encouraged us to follow up our ideas with action. We decided to have our guest speakers, Dr. Richard Alley from Penn. State University and Dr. Joan Fitzpatrick with the United States Geological Survey, present their subject to the Academy as one of the three plenary sessions. The Geology and Geography Division then asked Dr. Chet Rakocinski if his Division of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences would like to co-sponsor a three-hour Climate Change Symposium and he eagerly joined in the effort. In the meantime we began working with Aimee Lee, who is doing a great job of building up the Junior Academy. That work ended up featuring Dr. Alley as the key-note speaker for the Junior Academy meeting being held on the coast the day before the senior meeting opened. We also made arrangements with the J.L. Scott Marine Center to hold an evening lecture at their facility which was targeted toward Mississippi science teachers and the interested public. As the time arrived for the meetings to begin, that being Wednesday, we had the newspaper announcing our public events, Dr. Fitzpatrick was a guest on the local afternoon TV talk show, and Dr. Alley addressed the Junior Academy, the first of four audiences he was to speak with. On Thursday Dr. Alley and Dr. Fitzpatrick spoke to the Academy plenary, then held a three-hour symposium open to the public, and ended the day with an evening presentation at the Marine Center. In these activities they presented their fascinating topic to more than 450 people. Our original ambitions had materialized into what was a wonderful series of presentations that reached not only those of us in the Senior Academy but well beyond our own borders.

On Friday the Geology and Geography Division held its normal program, which consisted of one poster and 13 presentations. The division business meeting was held and Dr. Stan Galicki was elected chairman and Barbara Yassin was elected vice chair. It was a very good year for this small division and we are glad to have had the opportunity to play a part in its activities.