Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum

Williams College, Williamstown MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support the second biannual Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum, which will be held in June, 2012, at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. The forum will bring together specialists in structural geology and tectonics for oral and poster presentations, fieldtrips, short courses, and workshops for a total of seven days. The three days of presentations will include six sessions, one of which will focus on education. Each session will highlight an important area of current research and/or education, will be anchored by a distinguished keynote speaker, and will showcase relevance of work on the topic. Poster sessions with abundant time for full participant interaction will accompany each session. The forum will be organized to maximize the exchange of ideas between participants in open discussions. Sessions will provide ample opportunity to ask questions of individual presenters, assess the current state of our knowledge, and consider productive areas for future research. In addition to the formal meeting, there will be fieldtrips, short courses, and workshops. These activities will take place in the two days before and after the forum. Fieldtrips will focus on different aspects of the structural geology of the North Appalachians and/or superb field examples of structural processes. Short courses will be held on using Google Earth and Google SketchUp for research and teaching, GPS technology and GIS software for fieldwork, and in situ mineral dating. Finally, workshops on building digital databases in structural geology, and maintaining research programs at community colleges, two-year colleges, and minority-serving institutions will be convened prior to and after the meeting, respectively. The forum will be designed to facilitate community building and personal interaction within different segments of the structural geology community. It will bring together faculty from research universities, liberal arts colleges, community and two-year colleges, and minority-serving institutions. Importantly, there will be group discussions on critical developments in structural geology and tectonics, and what future research priorities should be. This community building effort will help create a stronger, more vibrant group of scientists and help introduce graduate students and advanced undergraduates to our discipline. This setting will be particularly useful for graduate students, who will be able to use the venue and informal nature of the forum to find out what research is taking place at other institutions, meet a wide range of faculty, and develop useful contacts. Students will also be able to present their own work in a friendly environment where they can obtain thoughtful and useful feedback, as well as providing opportunity to build new scientific collaborations. Abstracts, field guides, and short course notes will be disseminated through a dedicated website that will be publicly accessible.