VOLUME 23, NUMBER 3 OCTOBER, 2004 Message from the Division Chair TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Michael S. Kelley, Georgia Southern University Message from the Division Chair 1-2 As I write this, tens of thousands of Americans are taking Division Activity at Recent Meetings 2 a more active role in our nation’s future by registering to Dwornik Prize Winners 2 vote. Record numbers of new voters are flooding Denver GSA Meeting and Schedule 2-4 registration offices across the country. What about you? Shoemaker Award 4 Are you ready to take a more active role in your Finances and Membership 4 professional future? Are you willing to roll up your Call for Applications and Nominations 5 sleeves and contribute some hard work? The Planetary Best Paper Award Update 5-6 Geology Division – YOUR division – of GSA is always Officer Election Materials 7-8 looking for just that type of individual. In addition to serving in leadership positions in GSA, your Division officers chair their home departments, start and raise The Planetary Geology Division continues to evolve and families, host workshops, chair award committees in the adapt to changing times. For the first time in 20 years planetary community, serve on review panels and changes are being proposed to the Division bylaws. program committees, and still manage to submit Additions are being written to include new awards proposals, write papers, and teach. So what do you say? sponsored by the Division. We also are updating the Are you an over-achiever with no time to spare? Would nomination procedures for new officers to reflect the you like to join the fun anyway? Then contact one of the way it has actually been done for more than half a Division officers (see contact info on the last page) and decade. In addition, we are more specifically defining let us know. In addition to Division leadership positions the duties of management board members. In the near that open each year, we often recruit volunteers to help future you will have a chance to review and approve us chair sessions, staff our information booths, and host these changes. special events. (continued on p. 2) Each year the Planetary Geology Division brings some of the hottest topics and latest missions to the geologic community by way of the GSA Annual Meeting. This 2004 DWORNIK PRIZE WINNERS year in Denver, proposals sponsored by your Division snagged two of the eight coveted Pardee Keynote Keith A. Milam, University of Tennessee (poster) Symposia. By acting quickly early this year, we Nicholas J. Tosca, State University of New York, capitalized on the success of GSA’s public forum last Stony Brook (oral) year in Seattle. This year the Planetary Geology Division will be hosting a Mars Public Forum in Denver. Honorable Mentions GSA’s corporate sponsor, Subaru, has provided Joel A. Hurowitz, State University of New York, substantial funding that will allow us to produce a Stony Brook (poster) webcast of the event. For the first time at a national Sarah K. Noble, Brown University (oral) GSA meeting we are hosting a Planetary and Space Art Exhibit for a full afternoon during the conference. This Chris H. Okubo, University of Nevada, Reno will feature paintings, sculptures, photographs, and (oral) digital art by more than a dozen scientists and artists. 2 Planetary Geology Division Chair’s Message (continued from p. 1) Mega-Scale Events on Mars and Earth: Influence on Geologic History” which was organized and run by Drs. The current officers also are developing a guidebook for Mary Chapman and Lazlo Keszthelyi. The Planetary the year-to-year operation of the Division. This Geology Division booth also continued to serve as a guidebook will describe in detail the duties of each focal point for Division fundraising and outreach officer and will include timelines of Division activities. activities; we express our sincere thanks to Ms. Jaclyn This will improve significantly our work efficiency and Allen (Lockheed-Martin) for her continued dedicated facilitate our timely interaction with GSA headquarters. efforts in support of our Division’s booth! Finally, at the (Rumor has it that such a guidebook for the Division was annual Business Meeting, the 2003 G.K. Gilbert Award developed at least once in the past. If anyone still has a was given to Dr. Roger Phillips of Washington copy, we’d love to borrow it!) University at St. Louis; the citationist was Dr. Ray Arvidson, also of Washington University. Full details One of the more visible changes will be our new about the exciting events at the 2003 Seattle meeting can electronic home, which is under construction now. In the be found in the January 2004 issue of the Division very near future, we will introduce a new Division newsletter. website hosted by the Department of Geology and Geography at Georgia Southern University. We will The judging panel at the 35th LPSC saw another crop of have updated versions of the links found on our former outstanding entries for the 2004 Dwornik Prize —many site, plus additional links to a variety of planetary thanks to the all the students who competed and to the resources. The new website will include an archive of volunteers who assisted with the judging! past newsletters, the Division bylaws, lists of previous Division award recipients, and photo galleries. We plan to make this a dynamic website where Division members can contribute photos and news. Division Activity: We are pleased to report that the Division is financially GSA Annual Meeting healthy and that membership is up over the previous Denver, November 6-10, 2004 year. It is also nice to know that other GSA divisions have been paying close attention to the way we operate. Our success and visibility at recent GSA meetings have Denver will be an exciting GSA meeting for the been noticed and leaders of other divisions are interested Planetary Division; we have one of the most exciting in learning from our experience. Of course, we have the lineups ever, and two brand-new events. Remember to advantage of working in one of the most exciting wide- register for this meeting at <http://www.geosociety.org>, open geoscience disciplines. Planets and spacecraft are and be sure to swing by the Division booth, Lucky Booth guaranteed to capture the imagination and fuel the #1313. To find us, just look right behind the GSA excitement of scientists and the public alike. We may bookstore. We will again be fund-raising for our not be the largest division at GSA, but we certainly have Division at the booth, so be sure to stop by for T-shirts, the biggest field area! space-related toys, Mars maps, photographs of extraterrestrial surfaces and other goodies. For those of you who are not too “bushed” to “carry” on after Election Day, we look forward to seeing you at the It looks like Tuesday, November 9 is the unofficial GSA Annual Meeting in Denver! Planetary Day at GSA! This year’s Annual Meeting will have a number of out-of-this-world events sponsored by the Planetary Geology Division. Perhaps one of the more Division Activity at Recent Meetings visually appealing activities will be the Planetary and The Planetary Geology Division continued to sustain a Space Art Exhibit. Works by scientists and artists who high level of activity and visibility at both the Fall 2003 specialize in heavenly works will display their original GSA meeting in Seattle and the 35th Lunar and Planetary creations. These will include paintings, textural art, Science Conference in Houston, Texas. At the GSA photography, and electronic art. Works by Bill meeting in Seattle, the Division sponsored a Pardee Hartmann, Dan Durda, Leonard Wikburg, Ulrike Arnold, Keynote Symposium entitled "Preservation of Random (continued on p. 3) ANNOUNCING THE 2004 G. K. GILBERT AWARD WINNER Dr. William Hartmann, Planetary Science Institute Previous Gilbert Award Recipients: E. Shoemaker (1983); G. Wetherill (1984); W. Alvarez (1985); R. Baldwin (1986); D. Gault (1987); D. Wilhelms (1988); H. Schmitt (1989); H. Masursky (1990); J. Guest (1991); J. Wood (1992); M. Carr (1993); S. R. Taylor (1994); B. Lucchitta, 1995); R. Sharp (1996); R. Greeley (1997); J. Adams (1998); S. Solomon (1999); L. Soderblom (2000); H. J. Melosh (2001); J. Head (2002); R. Phillips (2003). 3 Planetary Geology Division PGD Activities in Denver (continued) and others will be on display. This event will be held Finances and Membership from 1:30 to 6:00 pm on Tuesday at the Colorado Convention Center. The cost is a very reasonable $2.00 The Division's finances remain healthy, and we hope per person, which will be donated to the Planetary and they will continue to improve as we stay focused on Geology Division. For more information, contact Mike reducing costs and raising funds. This electronic Kelley <[email protected]> or Mary newsletter represents a key cost-cutting measure, as Chapman <[email protected]>. electronic distribution reduces our costs considerably. As is shown below, our largest single yearly cost continues We also will be sponsoring the GSA Public Forum on to be the Division’s annual business meeting at the Mars: The Latest (Red) Dirt from the Mission Makers. national GSA meeting, and we will continue to search This free event, held on Tuesday night and linked to the for ways to reduce this expense. The financial activity of Mars Pardee session Wednesday morning (see below), is our Division over the past year can be summarized as from 7:30-9:00pm at the Convention Center; funding for follows: this event is provided by Subaru, GSA’s corporate 2003-2004 sponsor. This year, five spacecraft are simultaneously REVENUE exploring Mars, providing an unprecedented look at the Budget Year surface and subsurface of this intriguing planet.