Dr. Scott Tinker presented AGI award for Outstanding Contributions to the Understanding of Geoscience

Very few people have impacted the public understanding of geoscience as much as Dr. Scott Tinker. His documentary Switch, co-produced with Harry Lynch as part of the Switch Energy Project, has screened at over 350 universities, and reached an estimated 3 million people globally. In 2013, it will be distributed in thousands of Earth Science Week kits to students worldwide. For this, and many other esteemed accomplishments, Tinker has been presented the American Geosciences Institute award for Outstanding Contributions to the Understanding of Geoscience.

Tinker is actively engaged in building bridges between academia, industry, and government. He weaves energy, the environment, and the economy into his talks, in which he envisions a very challenging, but positive, global future. In 2000, after 17 years in the oil and gas industry, Tinker joined the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Allday Endowed Chair in the Jackson School of Geosciences. He has given more than 500 invited and keynote lectures and visited nearly 50 countries. Dr. Tinker is the Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology (BEG) and the State Geologist of Texas, and a past President of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists and the Association of American State Geologists.

The award is presented to a person, organization, or institution in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the public understanding of geology. The contribution may be in geology as a science or in geology as it relates to economic or environmental aspects of modern civilization. The award may be given to a geologist or non-geologist, or to an organization or an institution that is geologic or non-geologic in character.

Provided by American Geosciences Institute