Every year the GBGM executive committee selects exceptional scholars to receive awards for their accomplishments in research, education/mentoring, and service in geobiology. This year we had an exceptional list of nominees so thanks to all those who nominated someone!
We are pleased to announce that the 2023 awards go to Kristin Bergmann (pre-tenure), Colleen Hansel (post-tenure), and Gabriela Mángano (distinguished career). Please check out their brief biographies below and explore their websites for further details about their research.
Pre-Tenure Award Recipient: Kristin Bergmann (MIT)
Dr. Kristin Bergmann is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on how the chemistry and climate of the oceans and atmosphere affected the evolution of complex life, from unicellular microbial communities to multicellular animal communities. She uses a multi-disciplinary approach beginning with field observations in strata preserved in locations such as Oman, Svalbard, and the United States. She combines sedimentology and stratigraphy, stable isotope geochemistry of carbonates including clumped isotope thermometry, petrography and microanalytical techniques to help reconstruct the co-evolution of environmental and evolutionary change through Earth's long history.
Post-Tenure Award Recipient: Colleen Hansel (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Dr. Colleen Hansel is a Senior Scientist and Biogeochemist in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Colleen has more than 20 years of experience studying terrestrial and marine biogeochemistry, including controls on and consequences of the metabolic and biological diversity of natural and man-made ecosystems. Her research has focused on the cycling and mineralization of metals, using a range of microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. Colleen’s current research program is focused on coupled elemental cycles and cryptic processes that control the biogeochemistry and health of various marine ecosystems, ranging from coral reefs to the deep biosphere. One particular emphasis is the cycling and sources of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the impact of their formation on other elemental cycles and organismal health. To enable this research, Colleen has established an integrated science and engineering program to design and develop new in situ submersible sensing technologies to enable measurement of short-lived intermediates like ROS over various spatial scales.
Distinguished Career Award Recipient: Gabriela Mángano (University of Saskatchewan)
M. Gabriela Mángano is a Distinguished Professor and George J. McLeod Enhancement Chair in Geology at the University of Saskatchewan where she has taught for the last twenty years. Before her arrival to Canada, Gabriela worked for the Argentinian Research Council (CONICET), which she has recently re-joined as International Researcher. Gabriela has approached geobiology from the perspective of animal-substrate interactions in deep time. She likes to move along the geological time scale to detect evolutionary breakthroughs and track the deep history of bioturbation. Her research attempts to reconstruct the emergence of modern marine benthic ecology, discern environmental from evolutionary controls, and temporally calibrate ichnofacies and ichnofabrics. Gabriela immensely appreciates international collaboration and enjoys working with her graduate students (more than 30 supervised or co-supervised, visit www.ichnoplanet.ca). She is Past Co-Editor of PALAIOS and serves as Co-editor of Lethaia and Sedimentology. She was awarded the Association of Women Geoscientists Outstanding Educator Award (2018) and recently became a corresponding member of the Argentinean Academy of Sciences.
These exceptional scientists were celebrated during our recent 2023 GSA Connects Meeting in Pittsburgh; the awardees gave excellent invited talks in our "New Voices in Geobiology" and "New Advances in Geobiology" sessions.
If you have a colleague you want to nominate for a GBGM award, be on the lookout for information on submitting nominations early 2024.
