From the Editors

In This Issue….

Bill Roman, AEG News Content Editor

n this issue of AEG News, we are pleased to report on the first AEG Foundation DEIC Field Trip (News of the Association, p. 9). The field trip was supported by a grant from the AEG Foundation Diversity Scholarship Fund. Scholarships and grants from this AEG Fund are intended to support increasing the diversity of present and future ranks of AEG and geosciences professions. The Geosciences Youth Field Trip Grant specifically provides geoscience-related field experiences to underserved, historically disadvantaged junior and senior high school students. According to the Fund’s Charter, these experiences may occur in “parks, public forest lands, public open vistas, or other public natural environments that show geology and its processes, products, or professions.”

Outstanding field experiences like those supported by the Diversity Scholarship Fund attract students to geology who may

lnot otherwise be aware of the opportunity for a career in the geosciences. Minorities have long been underrepresented in the science and engineering occupations with environmental science and geoscience occupations having the lowest participation rates according to the American Geological Institute.1 To address the issue, AEG members Richard and Phyllis Steckel proposed establishing the Diversity Scholarship Fund and graciously founded it with a donation of $25,000 in 2021 and intend to add an additional $5,000 annually for the foreseeable future. For more details on the AEG Foundation Diversity Scholarship Fund, visit the Foundation’s website at https://www.aegfoundation.org/funds/diversity.php.

1 Gonzales, Lelia and Keane, Christopher, 2020, Diversity in the Geosciences: AGI Geoscience Currents Data Brief 2020-023. https://www.americangeosciences.org/sites/default/files/DB_2020-023DiversityInTheGeosciences.pdf

Acquisitions Editor’s Pen

Martha Whitney, AEG News Acquisitions Editor

elcome to the Summer Edition of AEG News. This issue was a bit of a challenge to put together as we all become excessively busy. Perhaps we are W making up for lost time, or perhaps we just can’t get enough of the work that we love. It is a little bit of both for me as I am currently on my second thirty-day rotation in Papua, New Guinea, and just absolutely loving it. It is such a beautiful country and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to spend time here. Travelling from the Fly Camp to the work sites by helicopter and hiking up to drill pads via bush staircases (aka “bridging”) was a truly remarkable adventure. I head home next week and look forward to some time off. My next adventure which will take me far from the Papuan bush.…I head back to the States and will visit Kodiak, Humboldt, the Siskiyous and finally onward to the concrete jungle of Las Vegas and the Annual Meeting. Having missed San

Antonio last year, I am really excited to finally be able to meet everyone in person. I will be out and about throughout the meeting, field trips, and various events taking photographs for

AEG News. If you see me running around Planet Hollywood like some kind of geo-paparazzi, don’t be shy…smile for the camera and say hi!