Student Award Guidelines

The History and Philosophy of Geology Division of the Geological Society of America sponsors an Award for the best paper in history and philosophy of geology to be submitted for presentation by the student at the annual GSA meeting. The proposed paper may be: (1) A paper in the history and philosophy of geology; or (2) A literature review of ideas for a technical work or thesis/dissertation; or (3) Some imaginative aspect of the history and philosophy of geology we have not thought of before. The paper may be in either oral or poster form, and presented at the History and Philosophy of Geology disciplinary session.

Guidelines for GSA History and Philosophy of Geology Division Student Award

The Award shall consist of $1000 to be applied to the student’s expenses to attend the national GSA meeting . It is open to all students regardless of discipline, provided the proposed paper is related to the history of a geological idea/person/etc. After the applications have been reviewed by the Awards Committee, the winner will be notified. The winner should then register for the GSA Annual Meeting and present his or her paper at the History and Philosophy of Geology Division disciplinary session or present it in a poster session, as appropriate. A ticket to the History and Philosophy of Geology luncheon will be provided. The $1000 award will be presented and the student will be recognized at the annual luncheon.

The student will prepare a proposal as noted below. The student will submit the application to the History and Philosophy of Geology Division Secretary, who will send it to the Awards Committee. The Awards Committee will make the selection and return the materials to the student in time for possible revision before the student sends the final form of the abstract to GSA by the yearly due date.

Path for the Student:

The student will prepare a short proposal for his/her paper, to be sent to the Awards Committee.
A complete proposal will consist of:

The completed Student Award Application Form and attach to it the following two items:

  1. An abstract.
    1. STATE THE TITLE IN CAPS.
    2. Then list your name, affiliation, snail mail address, and email address, followed by the name and affiliation of other authors. For this student competition, your name should be listed first if there are multiple authors.
    3. Choose up to 5 keywords that can be used to find your paper in online searches.
    4. Summarize the content of your paper. GSA requires limiting this portion to 2000 characters, not including spaces.
    5. The content should include, as appropriate, the purpose, background, premise or rationale, methods, findings, and conclusions. Be sure to make your contribution clear. What new insight or information is in your paper?
    6. Sentences should be informative. Avoid ambiguous statements such as, “Irving’s unique contribution will be discussed.” A better, informative sentence would be, “Irving had the great idea of combining paleoclimatic and paleomagnetic results to argue for continental drift.”
    7. For further guidance, browse abstracts already published for past GSA meetings. Go to the GSA Past Meetings page and click on “search abstracts” to find examples of presentation.
    8. The awards committee will review abstracts and assist student winners in submitting contributions that meet GSA standards.
    9. When GSA opens its website for submission of abstracts in late spring, you can get additional hints at on the GSA website . Click on the link under GSA 2015 CALL FOR PAPERS that says “The abstracts form is now open” where you will find more information regarding format, word limit, etc. Do not submit your abstract now, however. Use this simply as a guideline for your submission for this award.
  2. A 1500 to 2000 word prospectus that more fully develops the content of the proposed paper concentrating on the argument and evidence. As a guide, remember that your presentation will be 15 minutes maximum (e.g. 12 minutes plus 3 minutes discussion).

Submit applications to
Christopher L Hill, Secretary-Treasurer
History and Philosophy of Geology Division, GSA
Chill2@boisestate.edu

Deadline is June 15