 Gordon E. Brown, Jr. |
2012 AGI Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell
Presented to Gordon E. Brown, Jr.
Citation by Georges Calas
I am pleased to nominate Prof. Gordon Brown, Dorrell William Kirby Professor of Earth Sciences and Chair of the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University, for the Campbell Medal. Gordon Brown deserves this honor by the importance of his service as a geologist, educator, administrator, and public servant. For more than 45 years, he made major contributions at the interface between Earth and Environmental Sciences, Physics and Chemistry, concerning a broad range of fundamental questions and societal issues. Gordon Brown was always devoted to the public service: at Stanford and SSRL, at NSF and DOE and in scientific organizations, as MSA. Such a broad activity illustrates the way Gordon Brown does science: having excellent and original ideas, teaching students, sharing and communicating, and working hard, including nights on synchrotrons…
The first recipient of the Campbell Medal, in 1981, was Dick Jahns, a former student of Ian Campbell at Caltech and Dean at Stanford. Gordon was close to Dick. He and Rod Ewing edited the Jahns Memorial Volume of the American Mineralogist.
I am deeply honored to give this citation and it is very fitting that Gordon Brown is receiving the AGI Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell.
2012 AGI Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell — Response by Gordon E. Brown, Jr.
This is an extraordinary honor, for which I am deeply grateful. And I am even more grateful for the work that the members of this society, and their fellow geologists around the world, have carried out in helping us understand this remarkable moment in the history of our sojourn on this planet. In my work as a writer I’ve tried to understand and interpret the work of earth scientists as they grapple with the unprecedented task of observing planetary transitions in real time. And with millions of people around the world I’ve been privileged to try and take that work and build from it the kind of defense that I think our planet needs—a swift, confident swing away from the energy sources of the last few hundred years, and towards the next stage in our progress as a civilization. It’s for all those people that we work with at 350.org that I accept this great honor, and give my deepest thanks to all of you