ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA — The American Geological Institute (AGI) will induct Steven M. Stanley as President for 2002 during its reception and awards ceremony on Tuesday, November 6, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), an affiliated member society. The ceremony takes place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Independence West Ballroom of the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. He will begin a one-year term of office.

    The 2002 Executive Committee that Stanley will lead includes President-Elect M. Ray Thomasson, President of Thomasson Partner Associates, Inc. in Denver; Treasurer Steven L. Veal, President of DCX Resources, Ltd. in Denver; Secretary John Steinmetz, State Geologist of Indiana and Director of the Indiana Geological Survey in Bloomington; Member-at-Large Rhea L. Graham, manager with the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission in Santa Fe; Member-at-Large Joseph A. Briskey, researcher at the U. S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia; Member-at-Large R. Heather Macdonald,  Professor of Geology at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia; and Past President Larry D. Woodfork, Director and State Geologist of the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey.

    Stanley is Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and also serves as Chair of the Environmental Earth Sciences and Policy Master’s Program. Throughout his career of more than 30 years, Stanley has conducted studies on the rates and patterns of large-scale evolution. His current research focuses on major episodes of evolution and extinction and their links to oceanographic and climatic changes.

    In addition to having served on the AGI Executive Committee from 1997 through 1999, Stanley is also active in many of AGI’s affiliated societies and other organizations. He is a long-time member of the Paleontological Society, the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and the Society for the Study of Evolution. He was President of the Paleontological Society for the 1993-1994 term. Stanley has served on numerous committees of these organizations as well as on the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and the Commission on Geosciences, Environment and Resources of the National Research Council.

    Colleagues have recognized Stanley for his scientific and professional contributions. He was awarded the Allan C. Davis Medal of the Maryland Academy of Science in 1973, the Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society in 1977, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1980. Stanley was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1988 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994. In 1998, he received the J.A. Bownocker Medal of Ohio State University.

    Stanley is the author or coauthor of many professional publications, abstracts, and journal articles. Earth System History, a historical geology textbook, was published in 1999. His first book, with coauthor David M. Raup, Principles of Paleontology, was initially published in 1971 and then revised in 1978. Stanley also wrote Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, a book about large-scale evolution, which was published in 1979.

    The American Geological Institute is a nonprofit federation of 37 geoscientific and professional associations that represent more than 120,000 geologists, geophysicists, and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in our profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in mankind's use of resources and interaction with the environment. More information about AGI can be found at www.agiweb.org. The Institute also provides a public-outreach web site, www.earthscienceworld.org.