Citizen Staff Writer
MATT LEWIS
mattl@tucsoncitizen.com
This week’s 37th annual GeoDaze symposium is an opportunity for University of Arizona students to present their work in the various fields of earth sciences. They will receive feedback from peers, professors and the public.
A $2,000 prize will be awarded for best oral presentation. Other awards include $1,000 for the best poster presentation, $500 for the best undergraduate presentation and five $300 prizes for oral presentations in five different subdisciplines.
The presentations will be Thursday and Friday.
John Smol, a professor of biology at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, will give the keynote address at 3:15 p.m. Friday. He is the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change, which focuses on human socioeconomic forces and effects. Smol’s address – “From Controversy to Consensus: Making the Case for Recent Climactic Change in the Arctic Using Lake Sediments” – will be about recent climate warming in arctic lakes and ponds.
UA faculty members will judge students’ presentations and disburse the awards. The cash prizes are provided by endowments from private investors and science-related companies.
In addition to the Thursday and Friday presentations, a field trip to the Catalina Mountains is slated Saturday.
Jon Pelletier, a geomorphology and associate professor of geosciences at UA, will lead participants in exploring outcrops, how bedrock and other deposits appear and examine how rivers shaped the surrounding surfaces.
Vans will take participants up Tucson Basin to the Catalina Mountains. Transportation and lunch will be provided.
Annual GeoDaze symposium starts Thursday
If You Go
What: GeoDaze, an earth sciences symposium for undergraduate and graduate students
When: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday • field trip 7:45 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: presentations at the Arizona Historical Society Museum, 949 E. Second St. • Field trip participants will meet early Saturday at the University of Arizona’s Gould-Simpson building, 1040 E. Fourth St.
Price: free, but seating is limited
Info: For more details or to register for the field trip, call 621-6000, e-mail geodaze@ email.arizona.edu or go online to http://earth.geo.arizona.edu/ geodaze/09/registration.php