Geology (or earth sciences)
is an interesting and exciting field, as well as one that is
highly relevant to society (energy supplies, raw materials,
global change). It is rewarding as a career, and we want to
encourage involvement of people of all ages, and we want to
boost numbers of younger people entering the field.
Here are the ten things the
GA is doing to celebrate GA150.
(1) Your Planet Earth
The YPE (Your
Planet Earth)
initiative has been launched, and will develop through 2008,
and into the future.
(2) GA150 lectures
We shall hold a number
of special lectures around the country, specifically tagged
as part or the sesquicentenary celebrations. Likely venues
include Exeter, Bath, Cardiff, Manchester, and Leicester. The
current lecture programme is listed
here.
More lectures will be added as they are announced.
Contact:
Roger Le Voir.
(3) GA150 field trips
In addition to the normal
programme, we are organising and underwriting the costs of
a number of special UK-based field trips for 2008. The
special programme is listed here. More trips will be added
as they are announced.
(4) The new and improved GA web site
The new GA web site was
launched in April 2007. It offers many new services, not
least the opportunity for members and the public to buy GA
guides and other items on-line, and to renew their membership
on-line as well. We are now open for additions to the web site
and will continue to improve it and develop it as a resource.
The website will be advertising the sesquicentenary celebrations
and the GA 150 events.
Contact: Sarah
Stafford or John Crocker.
(5) The GA photograph archive
One of the glories of the
GA is its wonderful archive of photographs. These not only
illustrate some of the best known, less well known, and in
many cases greatly changed geological localities, but also
the many GA members who have visited these places over the
last 150 years. The photographs have been brought out on a
regular basis at reunions and other events and have been used
to illustrate articles in the GA magazine.
Using these photographs,
and associated ephemera, we plan to run a series of historical
articles in the GA Magazine through 2008. Contact: John Crocker.
We are also looking carefully at how the archive collection
can be made more widely available, including via the GA web
site, as well as encouraging new donations to the archive so
that it can reflect the next 150 years of the GA!
Contact:
Jonathan Larwood and Marjorie Carreck.
(6) New support for regional GA meetings
Each year from 2008, the
GA will plan to hold its November meeting (the ‘Festival
of Geology’ or ‘Reunion’)
in London. In addition, we would like to encourage one or more
major regional GA events each year, possibly in spring, and
we are offering a substantial sum of new money to support these
activities. The regional event could be a major festival of
geology with the involvement of several local societies, it
could be a mini-conference, a special field trip, an exhibition,
or an event happening in schools and libraries. The key will
be to achieve maximum impact on the public, and especially
on children.
We now offer grants up
to £3000
each year from the JAPEC fund to regional groups or consortia
who wish to run an event. Preference will be given to proposals
that have a strong management group based either on one regional
earth sciences / geological society, or a consortium of local
groups, who have a strong theme for their meeting and are
likely to attract strong attendance. The JAPEC funds may
be used to contribute to the costs of hire of the venue and
display materials, advertising, production of literature,
payments for a celebrity lecture, or the like.
Contact: Roger
le Voir.
(7) GA150 Festival gala dinner
We will hold a splendid
dinner in central London on the evening of Friday October 31st.
This is the weekend of the Festival of Geology / GA Reunion
to be held at UCL in London. It will allow GA members
to attend the ‘local and affiliates
meeting’ if they so wish earlier in the day, enjoy the
gala dinner in the evening, and then attend the Festival events
on the Saturday and Sunday. Dr Iain Stewart of the University
of Plymouth, the star presenter of numerous geological programmes
on television, including ‘Journeys from the Centre of
the Earth’ and ‘Journeys into the Ring of Fire’,
has agreed to be our speaker at this event.
The dinner will be followed
by an auction of good-quality antiquarian and second-hand books
on geological themes, as well as other items of interest. We
are exploring costs and venues, and will provide further details
and booking instructions shortly.
Contact:
Sarah Stafford.
(8) The GA Curry prizes for MSc theses
The GA has established
three prizes, each worth £1000,
to be awarded each year to the three best MSc theses on a geological
topic. We shall invite the coordinators of each relevant MSc
programme (and we have identified about 40 such programmes
so far, being taught in all our major universities, from Aberdeen
to Bristol) to submit the best thesis of the year, and the
best three will be given the prize. We will use this as a way
to recruit enthusiastic young members who are training to enter
the professions and academia. The prizes are funded by the
Curry Fund.
Download Curry
Prize poster and regulations here.
Contact: Richard Howarth.
(9) Quaternary Research Association
meeting
The GA were co-sponsors of a major
international meeting, ‘The
Quaternary of the British Isles and adjoining seas’ held
at The Royal Geographical Society from Tuesday 8th to Thursday
10th January 2008. The meeting covered all aspects of Quaternary
Science and comprised a series of lectures by invited speakers
covering the topic, and poster sessions at which particular
items of new work will be discussed. The key papers will form
a special issue of the PGA in late 2008 or early 2009.
Contact:
Jim Rose.
(10) Rockwatch events
Rockwatch,
the junior club of the GA, is already working in partnership
with the External Relations Committee (ERC) of the Geological
Society of London on a children’s book
celebrating 200 years of geological history. Publication is
planned for 2008. We are also working with the ERC to run a
1 day conference/workshop for youngsters on Planet Earth in
the 21st century. A number of planned outcomes from this event
will include an ongoing dialogue / discussion on the Rockwatch
web site with the aim of engaging youngsters in thinking about
the future of Planet Earth. We will have a major public event
(field based) for youngsters and their parents (RW members
and the public) in partnership with the Dorset GA and the Jurassic
Coast heritage Education Team. Updates and details will be
posted on both the Rockwatch and GA web sites over the coming
months.
Contact: Susan Brown
