AGI Announces Sharon Mosher as its 2013 President

Alexandria, VA – The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is pleased to announce Dr. Sharon Mosher as its 2013 President. She will be inducted at the Friends of AGI Reception held during the Geological Society of America (GSA) Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 5, 2012.

Sharon Mosher
Sharon Mosher, Dean, Jackson School of Geosciences.

Mosher is currently Dean and the William Stamps Farish Chair at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She received degrees in Geology from the University of Illinois at Urbana (B.S. 1973, Ph.D. 1978) and Brown University (M.S. 1975), and has been a full professor since 1990 specializing in structural geology and tectonics. She assumed Chairmanship of the Department in 2007 and became Dean in 2009. Mosher has also held leadership positions at GSA (President, 2000-2001), the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (Chair, 2004), GeoScienceWorld (Chair, 2004-2009), the NSF Advisory Committee for Geosciences (2003-2005), the Texas State Board of Education, Earth Science Task Force (2002-2005), and the NSF Committee of Visitors for Deep Earth Processes Section of EAR Division of the GEO Directorate (Chair, 2005), to name a few. She is an active member in many geoscientific societies including GSA, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Dr. Mosher is a dynamo and serves as an exemplary model for researchers and professors everywhere. She has extensive experience both in the classroom and out in the field, including 38 years of field mapping experience, and 34 years of teaching at both undergraduate- and graduate-levels. She is dedicated to her students, having mentored and successfully graduated 17 Ph.D. students, 34 M.A./M.S. students, 9 undergraduate senior honor students, and 3 postdoctoral scientists since 1978. She has been recognized for her excellence in research and education by multiple geoscientific societies, earning numerous awards including the Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Award (2005), the GSA Distinguished Service Award (2003), University of Illinois Department of Geological Sciences Alumni Achievement Award (2001) and the AWG Outstanding Educator Award (1990). She is a GSA Fellow and an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

“The American Geosciences Institute is fortunate to have an incoming President as widely venerated and respected as Sharon Mosher,” said Dr. P. Patrick Leahy, Executive Director of AGI. “AGI will benefit from Sharon’s extensive experience as an educator and effective science communicator. We welcome her as our newest President.”

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The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society’s use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.