Eunice Newton Foote Medal for Earth-Life Science
Information on the Foote Medal
Award Benefits
-
1Awardee will be made an AGU Fellow (if the honoree has been an AGU member for three consecutive years and is not already a Fellow)
-
2Recognition at the AGU Fall Meeting during the award presentation year
-
3Four complimentary hotel nights at the AGU Fall Meeting during the award presentation year
-
4Two complimentary tickets to the Honors Banquet at the AGU Fall Meeting during the award presentation year
Eligibility
To better understand eligibility for nominators, supporters and committee members, review AGU's Honors Conflict of Interest Policy.
-
1
Nominees: The nominee should be a senior scientist, but is not required to be an active AGU member. They should be in compliance with the Conflict of Interest Policy.
-
2
Nominators: Nominators must be active AGU members and in compliance with the Conflict of Interest Policy. Duplicate nominations for the same individual will not be accepted. However, one co-nominator is permitted (but not required) per nomination.
-
3
Supporters: Individuals who write letters of support for the nominee are not required to be active AGU members but must be in compliance with the Conflict of Interest Policy.
Nomination package
Your nomination package must contain all of the following files, which should be no more than two pages in length per document. For detailed information on the requirements, review the Union Awards, Medals and Prizes Frequently Asked Questions.
- A nomination letter with one-sentence citation (150 characters or less). Letterhead stationery is preferred. Nominator’s name, title, institution, and contact information are required. The citation should appear at either the beginning or end of the nomination letter.
- A curriculum vitae for the nominee. Include the candidate’s name, address and email, history of employment, degrees, research experience, honors, memberships, and service to the community through committee work, advisory boards, etc.
- A selected bibliography stating the total number, the types of publications and the number published by AGU.
- Three letters of support not including the nomination letter. Letterhead is preferred. Supporter’s name, title, institution, and contact information are required.
Criteria
-
1Scientific Excellence: The successful nominee’s body of publications or other scholarly output demonstrates the introduction of new ideas and data collection efforts or the development of new analytical methods or novel approaches to synthesis that integrate Earth and life sciences. “Life sciences” is defined broadly, ranging from biochemical mechanisms to ecology to life’s origin and evolution.
-
2Scientific Impact: The successful nominee’s scholarly output substantially advanced understanding of the past, present, or future of key facets of the Earth system or of the prospects for life on worlds beyond our own or of the future of human well-being. This impact is best measured through the influence of the nominee’s scholarly output on the work of others, such as via publications, organization of the scientific community, or expansion of the discipline.
-
3Scientific Citizenship: The successful nominee must be a good citizen of the community as demonstrated by service, teaching, mentoring, collaboration, or leadership activities aligned with AGU’s values and mission.
Recipients
Marilyn L Fogel
Citation
Marilyn Fogel’s groundbreaking career spurred the opening of entirely new research areas in the biogeosciences, advancing knowledge at the Earth-life interface and inspiring a generation of geoscientists. During a career spanning more than 40 years, she drove the integration of isotope geochemistry with a variety of topics in the environmental and life sciences, ranging from paleoecology to the search for life on other worlds to questions in human evolution. She began this work at the Carnegie Institution during an era in which the word “biogeosciences” was seldom used and in which women were a rarity in geoscience. Marilyn was undaunted. The hallmark of her research was a holistic approach in which she established and advanced novel analytical methods; used them to make fundamental, foundational observations; and applied these innovations in impactful ways through numerous collaborations. Following this approach, Marilyn was the first to characterize many isotope fractionations for key biomolecules and critical biochemical processes. She pioneered the pursuit of palaeoecological and anthropological questions using isotope analyses. She was among the first to analyze isotopes in proteins and amino acids, ushering in new insights into nitrogen cycling in soils, sediments and aqueous systems. She took these and other insights into the field of astrobiology when it was still new. Over the years, Marilyn generously mentored students and postdocs who grew into a vast network of exceptional scientists; the number of stable isotope laboratories established and led by her former mentees is a remarkable legacy, the impact of which will be felt for decades to come. Her scope of influence grew as she stepped up into visible and creative leadership roles at the National Science Foundation and AGU; at the University of California (UC), Merced, where she was a founding department chair; and then as founding director of a new biogeosciences institute at UC Riverside. To all these roles she brought keen scientific insight, deeply humane ethics, an infectiously optimistic personality and a service-oriented leadership style. Marilyn thereby became a beloved citizen-leader of the biogeoscience community, inspiring countless scientists working at the Earth-life interface. She continued to inspire to the very end, through her astonishing example of leading and engaging while living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease). An extraordinary person who made extraordinary contributions at the intersection of Earth and life sciences, Marilyn Fogel is the perfect recipient of the inaugural Eunice Newton Foote Medal for Earth-Life Science. — Ariel D. Anbar Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona
Honors Contacts
