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GSA2016 ANNUAL MEETING & EXPOSITION

President’s Welcome

Join your GSA colleagues for a full, fun, and invigorating Annual Meeting.
The early meeting dates allow for an unusually rich slate of geological field
trips to locations across the mountain states. Remind yourself why you love
geoscience on a field trip to the Belt Basin, the San Juan Mountains,
Yellowstone, the Colorado–Green River system, and more. A full technical
program will reach broadly across our science, with 230 topical sessions and
featured symposia on the geological evolution of Cuba (with special Cuban
guests) and the critically important High Plains Aquifer.

Enhance your skills with a short course on LiDAR, environmental
geochemistry, teaching controversial issues, 3-D printing, and much more.
Check out the Exhibit Hall, and meet with instrument and service vendors, publishers, geoscience
organizations, and graduate schools. Opportunities abound for students to network with top profes-
sionals and speak with mentors from various employment sectors. The 5th International
EarthCache Event immediately precedes the GSA meeting, and there will be opportunities
throughout the meeting to engage in EarthCache activities.

Now that the abstracts are in, we can tell you that you’ll have more than 4,700 talks to choose
from, and we expect that nearly 7,500 geoscientists from around the world will come to Denver this
year. Don’t miss your opportunity to weigh in on discussions, find project and job opportunities,
and have a bit of fun! See you in Denver!

GSA Presidential Address:
Mission-Driven Geoscience

Sun., 25 Sept., noon–1:30 p.m. Colorado Convention Center (CCC), Mile High Ballroom 2A/3A

Geoscientists work across the spectrum, from the fundamental research that dominates academic
departments to the applied science driving oil and gas exploration, mining, and environmental
protection. Within a number of federal agencies, especially the U.S. Department of Energy, geosci-
entists mesh fundamental and applied science to focus on mission-driven geoscience. Here the goal is
to develop the basic understanding necessary to solve complex problems in support of the nation’s
energy and national security, and its environmental health. This address will explore some of the
complex challenges being addressed by geoscientists within our national laboratories, from the
detection and characterization of clandestine nuclear weapons testing to resolving the longstanding
question of what to do with radioactive waste, both legacy and recent. The challenges also encom-
pass the efficient and environmentally sustainable development of our many energy resources, and
improving our ability to predict the impacts of climate change at global and regional scales.
Harnessing scientific understanding to resolve large, complex problems is fundamentally important
to a healthy, safe, and prosperous nation and will remain a challenge to future geo-generations.

Claudia I. Mora, GSA President
Group Leader, Earth Systems Observations, Earth and Environmental
Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory

GSA TODAY | SEPTEMBER 2016

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View of Colorado from Pikes Peak. Photo by Kea Giles.