Here is the first VGP newsletter of 2002.  Look for further issues in May, August, and November.  All issues are archived at the VGP website http://VGP.AGU.org/.  Please direct enquiries and contributions for future issues to fagents@asu.edu.

In this issue:

(1) Call for VGP Committee Volunteers

(2) 2002 AGU Spring Meeting Information

(3) Best Student Papers at 2001 Fall AGU Meeting
 
 

(1) CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

As your President-Elect, my primary task this spring it to set up VGP committees for the 2002-2004 term (to begin July 1, 2002).  Below I list and describe each committee. Most committee work can be carried out by email.  This is your chance to make a contribution to VGP, to fix perceived problems, and to add innovations! If you are interested in serving on any of these committees, please contact me directly at cashman@oregon.uoregon.edu.

Meetings Committee - includes 2 or 3 people (one of whom is the VGP secretary) responsible for organizing the VGP component of the Fall and Spring meetings, plus two people (one each for fall and spring) to act as VGP press secretaries, that is, to identify either sessions or individual papers that are particularly press-worthy.

Publications Committee - this committee provides feedback to the Executive Committee on all issues related to VGP-related AGU publications.  I expect that this committee will play an important liason role between VGP members and AGU in the next few years, during the transition to all-electronic publications.

Education and Outreach Committee - the primary goal of this committee has been to set up (thank you Roger Nielsen!) and run the Best Student Paper awards at the Fall and Spring Meetings. Jill Karsten has recently been hired to run AGU's Education Program, and she organized a very successful student breakfast meeting at this Fall's AGU.  I expect that there will be many more AGU-wide innovations related to education, and this committee will be VGP's link to these AGU-wide initiatives.

Award Committees - there are three separate awards committees, all of which have the very important task of encouraging high quality nominations and choosing suitable award candidates:
Bowen Committee
Fellows Committee
Macelwane Committee
Nominations Committee - self-explanatory.

Kathy Cashman, VGP President-Elect
cashman@oregon.uoregon.edu
 
 

(2) 2002 AGU SPRING MEETING INFORMATION

VGP Section members interested in the Spring 2002 AGU Meeting, 28-31 May, 2002, can find information on the web at this URL: http://www.agu.org/meetings/sm02top.html  All the information is on the web but there are still a few things worth calling attention to in this VGP e-mail newsletter.

* Deadline for submission of abstracts to the AGU 2002 Spring Meeting is March 5, 2002 for paper submission and March 12, 2002 (1400 UTC) for electronic submission.

* Deadline for Pre-registration and Housing is April, 29, 2002.

* This year's R. A. Daly Lecture will be given by Chris Hawkesworth, Bristol University.   Title, time, and location to be announced in the next newsletter.

* Travel Grants to the Spring Meeting are available from AGU for students and/or scientists from Lend-a-Hand countries. See this URL: http://agu.org/meetings/meetings.html#stg

* The following Special Sessions will be of interest to VGP attendees:

U01 Earth's Core: New Insights and Challenges
U02 Geophysics in the 20th Century: Contributions from Washington
G02 GPS Navigation as a Tool for Earth Science
GS01 Application of trace Metals to Paleoenvironmental Change
M01 Mineral Structures and Stabilities
M02 Transformations in Earth Materials: Electronic, Magnetic, and Structural  Transitions
M03 Advances in Mineral Physics with Synchrotron Applications
M04 Deciphering Seismic Observations through the Lens of Mineral   Physics
P02 New Views of Venus: Recent Results from Mapping and Data Analysis
P06 Mars Sample Return: Science Implementation, Issues, and Plans
S01 Understanding the Heterogeneity of the Lower Mantle
S02 Dynamics of the Oceanic Mantle
S03 Hotspots: Observations and Theoretical Models
T01 Monitoring Deformation in Mountain Belts
T03 A Memorial Session for Ronald W. Girdler: Rifts, Ridges, Reversals, and  Regional Studies
T04 The Chesapeake Bay Impact Structure: Results from New Core Holes and  Geophysical Surveys
V01 Element Partitioning and Diffusion in the Earth's Interior
V02 Education on Volcanology at the Graduate and Undergraduate Levels
V03 Minerals, Solutions and Microbial Life
V04 Hydrothermal Environments: Coupling Experimental, Field and Analytical  Techniques
V05 Determining Diamond Provenance
V06 Volatiles and Light Elements in Magmatic Systems
V07 Multidisciplinary Constraints on Volcanic Volatile Budgets
ED01 The Earth and Space Science Education Revolution: A Call to Action

Sincerely yours,

Steve Shirey, VGP Spring Program Chair
(202) 478-8473
shirey@dtm.ciw.edu
 

(3) BEST STUDENT PAPERS AT 2001 FALL AGU MEETING

Congratulations to the recipients of the Best Student Paper Awards at the 2001 Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

Mindy Zimmer, University of New Mexico. V21C-994  Volatile chemistry and fluxes along the Costa Rican Segment of the Central American Volcanic Arc.

Pedro Jugo, Univ. Alberta. V32G-05 Experimental determination of sulfur solubility in basaltic melts at sulfide vs. sulfate saturation.  Possible implications for ore formation.

Bridget Diefenbach, Central Washington University. V42A 994  Origin of the 1974 eruptions of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, by magma mixing: Evidence from mineral chemistry, and crystal size distributions.

Kim Knight, University of California, Berkeley. V42F-02 Single phase Ar/Ar dating of Rajahmundry trap basalts contemporaneous with late stage Deccan Trap volcanism.

Lara Heister, University of California, Davis. V51C 1026  In search of the hiatus in early Tertiary volcanism in the North Atlantic LIP.