IIAAMMGG No. 56 June 1998 NNeewwsslleetttteerr Official Newsletter of the International Association for Mathematical Geology Contents IAMG’99 in Trondheim 2 The IAMG has shown once again that is indeed a truly in- President’s Forum 3 ternational organization. Note the distribution of award IAMG Journal Report 4, 10, 14, 15 winners who are announced in this issue (p. 6): Gert Jan Journal Contents 4 Weltje - Netherlands, the SDBP committee with members Natural Resources Research 5 from many countries and chairman Jose Brandle - Spain, Recent Books of Interest 5 Jan Harff - Germany, and John Doveton - USA. Four awards IAMG Awards, Prizes, Medals 6 winners - at least four different countries. True, there may Letter to the Editor - More Eigen lore 7 be a bit of a European bias Call for Award Nominations 7 Member News 8 From the Editor (even John Doveton has di- Geoffrey S. Watson, 1921-1998 9 From the Editor rect European roots). And Networking 10 From the Editor the composition of the IAMG’98 Ischia, Italy: 4-9 Oct. 1998 11-13 awards committee (also an Workshops for IAMG’98 (mostly one day) 13 international gremium) appears to reflect the origin of the Membership Application 15-16 awardees somewhat (2 from US, 1 each from England, Spain Upcoming Meetings 17-19 and Germany) but - “honi soit qui mal y pense” - we know 31st IGC, year 2000 in Rio de Janeiro. 17 there was certainly no patriotic bias, and each of the award Job Advertisement: Petroleum Geostatistician 20 winners truly deserves the award. We should reflect also on what nominations the awards committee had to work Happy Birthday, I.A.M.G. ! with. There was in fact no plethora of suggestions. These remarks should in no way be misconstrued to cast any as- The year 1998 marks the 30th birthday of our associa- persions on the choice and the merit of the award winners. tion. It was born at the turbulent, tumultuous International But wouldn’t it be great if more members took an interest Geological Congress in Prague, 1968, when Russian troups in the nomination procedure and mailed in their favorite, occupied Czechoslovakia and the city of Prague after the so- deserving mathematical geologist? Perhaps we could make called Prague Spring. the awards even more broad-based by including winners The IAMG has prospered in those 30 years. It has from many of the other countries represented by our inter- founded three international journals and a monograph series, a national membership. Newsletter 55 as well as the IAMG newsletter, spon- sored numerous web site (www.iamg.org) lists the qualifications and selec- professional meetings and tion criteria of each of the four awards. Send your brought to- A. M. G gether suggestions to the new Awards Committee chairperson Vera scientists . from all Pawlowsky (see p. 7). over the world for the ex- change The IAMG conference scene also has become very interna- a n d develop- tional. The last conference on North American soil was held ment of 1994 in Mont Tremblant, Canada. Before that was the sil- ideas. ver anniversary meeting in Prague; since then there have I t s original been Japan, China, Spain; this year it’s Italy and next year aim of “pro- Norway, and then Brazil in 2000. I think that’s great for us moting in those respective countries since it makes it easier (less interna- 30 tional co- costly) to attend these conferences. But it’s still a bit odd, operation in the with more than 45% of the membership in North America, application and use of that for so long conferences have been held elsewhere and mathematics in geological research so far no US conference is in sight (well, we understand and technology” has been fulfilled and that Americans like to travel to far and exotic places; so that continues to be one of its major goals. We wish the Association is probably the reason). continuing health and prosperity, and success in supporting and promoting mathematical geology. Harald S. Poelchau IAMG Newsletter No. 56 International Association for Mathematical Geology Officers Councilors President: Ricardo A. Olea, Kansas Geological Survey, Olivier Dubrule, Elf Geoscience Research Centre, 30 1930 Constant Avenue, Campus West, Lawrence, KS 66047-2598, Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6NN, UK, E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 44 171 963 5041, fax: 44 171 963 5061, E-mail: [email protected] Vice President: Carol A. Gotway Crawford, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cedric Griffiths, National Centre for Petroleum Geology and MS F42, 1600 Clifton Rd. NE Atlanta, GA 30333, Geophysics, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, AUSTRALIA, Phone: (770) 488-7428, Fax: (770) 488-7335, email: [email protected] Phone: 61 8 8303 3080, fax: 61 8 8303 4345, E-mail: [email protected], Secretary General: Thomas A. Jones, Exxon Production Research Co., http://www.ncpgg.adelaide.edu.au/ncpgg.html P. O. Box 2189, Houston, TX 77252-2189, USA, Phone: 713-431-6546; Fax: 713-431-6336, E-mail: [email protected] Stephen Henley, Resources Computing International, 608 Cascades, 4 Westferry Road, London E14 8JN, UK, Phone: Treasurer: Daniel M. Tetzlaff, Western Atlas Wireline Services, (44) (171) 538-9071, fax: (44) (171) 537-2594, E- P. O. Box 820050, Houston, TX 77282-0050, USA, Phone: 713 972 5435, mail:[email protected], http://www.rci.co.uk fax: 713 972 4855, E-mail: [email protected] Ute C. Herzfeld, Universität Trier, FB VI, Geographie/ Editors Geowissenschaften, Geomathematik, D-54286 Trier, GERMANY, Phone: 49 651 201 4611, Computers & Geosciences: Graeme F. Bonham-Carter fax: 49 651 201 381, E-mail: [email protected] Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth St., Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0E8, Canada, Phone: (613) 996-3387, fax: (613) 996-3726, Danie G. Krige, P. O. Box 121, 1716 Florida Hills, SOUTH E-mail: [email protected] AFRICA, Phone: 27 11 475 4479, fax: 27 11 475 4926, E-mail: [email protected] Mathematical Geology: Michael Ed. Hohn West Virginia Geological Survey, P. O. Box 879, Morgantown, Tetsuya Shoji, Onta 5-15-17, Higoshimurayama, Tokyo 189, WV 26507-0879, USA, E-mail: [email protected] JAPAN, Phone: 81 3 3812 2111, ext. 7018, fax: 81 3 5800 6917, E-mail: [email protected] Nonrenewable Resources: Richard B. McCammon U.S. Geological Survey, National Center 920, Reston, VA 22092, Special IGC Councilor: E-mail: mccammon@usgsresv Hernani A. F. Chaves, Av. Pasteur, 404, URCA - Rio de Janeiro - RJ - BRASIL, CEP22290-240, IAMG Newsletter: Harald S. Poelchau fax: (055-21) 295-8094, e-mail: [email protected] Research Center Juelich, ICG-4, Postfach 1913, D–52425 Jülich, Germany, E-mail: [email protected] Webmaster: Eric Grunsky, Alberta Geological Survey, 6th IAMG Archivist/Historian: Daniel F. Merriam Floor, 9945 108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA T5K Kansas Geological Survey,1930 Constant Avenue, University of Kansas, 2G6, Tel: 403 422 2454, Fax: 403 422 1459, email: Lawrence, KS 66047-2598, E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] IAMG’99 in Trondheim IAMG’99 Venue Set ! The conference will take place in Trondheim, August 8- 13, 1999. Trondheim is a city in mid-Norway situated on a In 1999 the IAMG will meet in Trondheim (Norway) for fjord. In 1997 it celebrated its 1000 year history. In early its annual conference. The meeting will be organized by 1997 the city hosted the world championship in the Nordic Richard Sinding-Larsen of the Department of Geology and ski disciplines and later in the year was the finishing line Mineral Resources Engineering at the Norwegian Univer- for the Cutty Sark tall ship race. The sessions will be held sity of Science and Technology NTNU. at the campus of the Norwegian University of Science and This international conference will focus primarily on the Technology. Vørnes, the airport of Trondheim, serves both use of mathematical geological modeling in the petroleum domestic and international flights. There are also train industry. In addition to resource assessment and explora- connections going both to the capital city of Oslo and to tion, other topics such as environmental studies, prediction Stockholm in Sweden. and prevention of geological hazards, computer applica- Contact: Conference Secretariat IAMG ’99 tions in geology and theoretical development in c/o Richard Sinding-Larsen geostatistics, will be included in relevant sessions accord- Department of Geology and Mineral Resource ing to the wishes of the international scientific committee. Engineering The call for presentation of proposals of tutorial workshops 7034 Trondheim, Norway and short courses will be launched together with the first Phone: 47 73 594837, Fax: 47 73 594814 announcement. e-mail: [email protected] - 2 - IAMG Newsletter No. 56 PRESIDENT’S FORUM Have you ever wondered where the money is coming from to pay institutional subscriptions, at which level the percentage goes up for the preparation and distribution of this your free Newsletter? from 7% to 10%. The base of the first interval is set by zero insti- It comes from royalties paid by the publishers of our publica- tutional subscriptions both for Computers & Geosciences and tions, as is the case for the funds to finance most of the Mathematical Geology, but by 301 institutional subscriptions for Association’s activities. Because our publications are and will Nonrenewable Resources. Royalties in these schedules are based continue to be the Association’s main source of income in the on percentage of gross receipts. Institutional subscriptions excludes foreseeable future, I want to share with you some facts and issues IAMG member subscriptions and typically comprise libraries.