There are two Excellence Awards: the Pre-tenure Excellence Award and the Post-Tenure Excellence Award. The nominations for the Pre- and Post-Tenure Awards will be solicited from current division members and be based, specifically, on excellence in research, mentoring, service, and leadership for the geobiology and geomicrobiology community (appropriate to the candidate’s position). From these nominations, the Division management board and appointed Division committee of awards will come to a consensus on the awardees. The awards will consist of both a plaque as well as an honorary membership to the division should the awardee not be a current member.
2025 Pre Tenure Awardee: Sarah Slotznick
Dr. Sarah Slotznick is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on using iron minerals to understand the co-evolution of life and the environment as well as the fidelity of the rock record in preserving ancient bio- and environmental signatures. She integrates field observations, innovative magnetic methods, and microscale textural techniques to probe questions spanning geologic time with an emphasis on the Proterozoic Eon. Recently, she has begun exploring modern systems as analogs to understand mineral formation and preservation.
2025 Post Tenure Awardee: Rowan Martindale
Rowan Martindale is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Jackson School of Geosciences. The overarching theme of her work is the connection between Earth and life through time, more precisely, understanding ancient (Mesozoic and Cenozoic) ocean ecosystems and the evolutionary and environmental events that shaped them. Her research is interdisciplinary, combining paleontology, sedimentology, biology, geochemistry, and oceanography, and focuses on: extinctions and carbon cycle perturbation events (e.g., Oceanic Anoxic Events, acidification events); marine (paleo)ecology and reef systems; the evolution of reef builders (e.g., coral photosymbiosis); exceptionally preserved fossil deposits (Lagerstätten); reef conservation; and geoscience education (gamification of educational activities).
Previous Awardees:
Pre Tenure Award
2024: Nagissa Mahmoudi
2023: Kristen Bergmann
2022: Lidya Tarhan
2021: Kimberley Lau
2020: Emmy Smith
2019: Elizabeth Swanner
2018: Paula Welander and James Schiffbauer
2017: Christopher Reinhard
2016: Erik Sperling
2015: Arpita Bose
2014: Rob Sansom
2013: David Johnston
2012: Alexis Templeton
2011: David Fike
Post Tenure Award
2024: Eva Stueeken
2023: Colleen Hansel
2022: Cara Santelli
2021: Phoebe Cohen
2020: Gregory Dick
2019: Clara Chan
2018: Beth Orcutt
2017: Susannah Porter
2016: Tanja Bosak
2015: Tim Lyons
2014: Sara Pruss
2013: Kurt Konhauser
2012: Barbara Sherwood-Lollar
2011: James Hagadorn