EEPS chapter of the Association for Women Geoscientists Distinguished Lecturer Program welcomed world-renowned geoscientist Dr. Marjorie Chan to its inaugural seminar in the fall of 2024.
By Eleanor Moreland
In the fall 2024 semester, Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences (EEPS) welcomed Dr. Marjorie Chan as the inaugural speaker to the Distinguished Lecturer Program (DLP) sponsored by the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG). Marjorie, a distinguished professor emerita at University of Utah, is world-renowned for her research and outreach in sedimentology.
The Rice EEPS AWG chapter was created just last year through the tireless efforts of PhD candidate Debadrita Jana. This year, I (Eleanor Moreland) assumed the leadership role and aimed to host an event featuring a scientist who could serve as both a mentor and an icon to our women geoscientists.
Marjorie immediately stood out to me because of her dynamic career that combines not only research honors, but numerous awards for outreach and her dedication to improving DEI in geoscience, as well as a passion for empowering early career scientists. When I reached out to Marjorie – who, incidentally, is incredibly humble despite her career accomplishments – she enthusiastically agreed to visit Rice and share her experiences. In turn, I was very excited to bring a high-profile speaker to be a role model for our female scientists.
For me, “high-profile” means more than just a lengthy publication record. As might be expected, Dr. Chan has a long list of research accomplishments; GSA fellow in 1995, the 2019 GSA Sloss Award for Lifetime Achievements in Sedimentary Geology, and the 2014 GSA Distinguished International Lecturer. However, I think her “high-profile” is underscored by her incredible impact on the geoscience community outside of purely research.
Marjorie has established herself as influential to women geoscientists through work in outreach and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the geosciences. Among many accolades, Dr. Chan received the 2020 GSA Distinguished Service Award, served on the chair for the GSA Diversity Committee, and in 2024 was the recipient of the AGI Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Public Understanding of the Geosciences. Marjorie’s endeavors beyond research make her an incredible role model and retroactively enhance the sedimentology research with which she started her career.
This amalgamation of experience with service was reflected in the lecture Dr. Chan presented to a half female-identifying crowd titled “Red Rocks: Stories of Diagenesis, Geoheritage, and Ethics”. She presented a wonderful 3-part story of how her research and extracurricular interests have mixed and mingled over her career within the beautiful setting of the red rocks of Utah. The diagenesis story focused on Dr. Chan’s illustrious career as a sedimentologist studying diagenesis, or physical and chemical changes to rocks, in Utah. She studied diagenesis in the Navajo Sandstones of Utah, which segued into the geoheritage portion of the talk, where Dr. Chan introduced and discussed her geoheritage work around the globe. She finished with an intriguing discussion about the ethics of sampling in geology, and how this influences our decisions in the field as well as in preserving beautiful geologic sites.
Among the three parts, my favorite was the discussion of geoheritage, a new concept to me. Geoheritage is the idea that geological features in certain areas or regions have significant cultural, educational, historical, or public interest that makes them worth preserving. For Marjorie, this site was “The Wave” in Utah. The Wave is a fantastic geologic site scientifically-speaking, but it is one of the most visually stunning locations of preserved aeolian cross-stratification within the Jurassic-age Navajo sandstone. Partly due to the geologic and aesthetic draw of this site, but also due to Marjorie’s efforts, “The Wave” is now recognized by the International Commission of Geoheritage, one about 20 such sites in the United States.
Dr. Marjorie Chan was phenomenal as the inaugural EEPS AWG DLP lecturer. We are deeply grateful to the AWG DLP for making this event possible and to Dr. Chan for generously sharing her experiences, perspectives, and role as a mentor for our department’s scientists. If I had to take home just one message from Dr. Chan, it would be this: Always allow your passions and identities to shape your career, because you never know who or what you’ll inspire along the way.
