Dr. Steven M. Stanley wins Penrose Medal, top honor for pure geology
Dr. Steven M. Stanley, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Department of Geology & Geophysics, is the recipient of the 2013 Geological Society of America (GSA) Penrose Medal, the Society's highest honor. This medal, which is awarded for eminent research in pure geology, will be presented at the GSA 125th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Denver, Colorado, at an awards ceremony on 28 October 2013.
Stanley has been a research professor at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa since 2005. He earned his bachelor's degree in Geology at Princeton University in 1963 and his PhD in Geology at Yale University in 1968. He was previously a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
"I have been privileged to take part in two revolutions in paleontology," said Stanley. "The first, getting underway when I was a graduate student, was the injection of biology into paleontology on a large scale: paleontology expanded into paleobiology."
"In fact, my dissertation work dealt entirely with living animals, with the aim of bringing fossil creatures to life. No one questioned my motives, and my results were widely appreciated!" quipped Stanley.
Since the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park, people have become fascinated with paleontology. The GSA Penrose Medal was most recently awarded to a paleontologist 20 years ago, when it went to Alfred G. Fisher of Princeton, who Stanley considers an academic father figure. This makes the award all the more meaningful to Stanley.
Stanley is known for his work employing fossil data to make a case for the punctuational model of evolution. This model holds that most species are generally stable, changing little for millions of years—then, most evolution is concentrated in brief events, when new species arise from others. Among many other contributions, Stanley has also shown that changes in seawater chemistry over the course of geologic time have influenced what kinds of marine organisms have flourished as major reef builders and limestone producers.
"A second renaissance in paleontology is underway," said Stanley, who continues to publish widely in his field. "It entails our efforts to interpret the history of life in the context of past environmental change. My efforts in this area have for the most part focused on major climate change and on changes in seawater chemistry over the course of hundreds of millions of years."
Stanley's book credits include best-selling textbook Earth System History as well as The New Evolutionary Timetable: Fossils, Genes, and the Origin of the Species, which was nominated for an American Book Award. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science (NAS) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2006, Stanley received an NAS medal for his analysis of the meaning of shell forms of bivalve mollusks and for his studies of patterns of large-scale evolution and extinction in relation to global environmental changes of the geologic past.
"If I had a time machine and could show myself, as a graduate student, all of the things I have gotten into during the past four-and-a-half decades, the result would be utter disbelief!" said Stanley.
"I owe a great deal to all those who have produced remarkable advances over the years in such fields as paleoclimatology and paleoceanography, opening up all kinds of new avenues for research," he said.
Provided by Geological Society of America
