Secretary’s report to the 83^rd MSA Business meeting:

The 83^rd annual business meeting of the Mineralogical Society of America was held on October 29, 2002, at 4:50 PM in the Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. What follows is a brief overview of the main actions taken by council and the executive committee, society election results, and other actions since the last business meeting.

Membership

As of Sept. 26, 2002, the total membership of the society stands at 2157. This is slightly higher than the total enrollment for the society last year and considerably higher than the enrollment in 2000. Please continue inviting your colleagues but especially students to join MSA. The business office encourages all members to use the on-line membership renewal process which saves the society the cost of sending paper renewal notices to members. To help entice members to renew early, there is again this year a $5 discount on the dues for those who renew their membership, either electronically or by paper, before December 31, 2002.

MSA membership figures are currently:

Life members: 62

Fellows 280

The total number of institutional subscriptions, 860, continues to decline but at a much slower rate than in the past 5 years. The losses continue to be in the number of foreign institutional subscriptions which are now almost half of what they were in 1995 (512). Domestic institutional subscriptions have leveled off this year.

New Fellows

I am pleased to announce the following eleven new Fellows of the Society:

Richard J. Arculus

J. Michael Brown

Robert T. Downs

Masaki Enami

Ching-Hua Lo

Alain Manceau

Catherine Ann McCammon

Takashi Murakami

Eiji Ohtani

David Christopher Smith

Lars Stixrude

The society extends its congratulations to these individuals! Let me remind you that the Committee for Fellows always welcomes your nominations of society members for this particular honor.

Medallists/Award winners:

I am also pleased to announce the following Medallists and Research Grant Recipients

Roebling Medallist is Charles T. Prewitt

Distinguished Public Service Medallist is George Harlow

Dana Medal Award recipient is R. James Kirkpatrick (for 2004)

MSA Award recipient is Guillaume Fiquet

2002/2003 Mineralogy/Petrology Research Grant recipients are:

and

The Best Paper Award for 2001 goes to Bret T. Peppard, Ian M. Steele, Andrew M. Davis, Paul J. Wallace, and Alfred T. Anderson for the article "Zoned quartz phenocrysts from the rhyolitic Bishop Tuff", which appeared in the American Mineralogist, Volume 86, pages 1034 — 1052.

Council has decided not confer a Best Paper Award for 2000.

Congratulations to all of the award and research-grant recipients. Council encourages you to nominate individuals for the various awards; detailed information can be found on the MSA website (www.minsocam.org). Please encourage students to apply for the various research grants which provide funding up to $5000 each.

As a reminder, MSA offers the Undergraduate Award to outstanding undergraduates recommended by faculty members. In addition to providing recognition to deserving students, these awards can help make the society a more tangible entity for undergraduates and the population at large. Details on nominating undergraduates can be found on the MSA website.

Short courses:

The society remains very active in sponsoring short courses. In 2002, there was, or will be, the courses:

Phosphates: Geochemical, Geobiological and Materials Importance was just held on October 26 and 27 at Golden, Colorado, prior to the GSA meeting. It was organized by Matthew J. Kohn and John Rakovan. There were approximately 60 in attendance and it was well received.

Applications of Synchrotron Radiation in Low-Temperature Geochemistry and Environmental Science which will be held on December 4^th and 5^th in Monterey, California, prior to the Fall AGU meeting. This short course is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and is being conveneed by Paul Fenter, Mark Rivers, Neil Sturchio, and Steve Sutton.

Plastic Deformation and Deformation Microstructres of Minerals and Rocks is to be held near UC-Berkeley on December 4^th and 5^th before the Fall AGU meeting. Conveners are Shun-ichiro Karato and Hans Rudolf Wenk.

In 2003 there will be:

Zircon being organized by John Hanchar and Paul Hoskin to be held at Freiburg, Germany, in conjunction with the joint assembly of the EGS, AGU, and EUG at Nice, France, in April of 2003.

Uranium Series Geochemistry which is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and being organized by Bernard Bourdon, S. P. Turner, Gideon M. Henderson, and Craig C. Lundstrom which is scheduled for April 14-17 in Nancy, France, which is also to be held in conjunction with the EGS-AGU-EUG meeting at Nice, France.

Biomineralization co-sponsored with the Geochemical Society and convened by Patricia Dove, James De Yoreo, and Steve Weiner, which will be held prior to the Fall AGU meeting.

In 2004 the following short courses are being planned:

Epidote Group Minerals which is being organized by Axel Liebscher and tentatively planned for the Goldschmidt Conference in Denmark.

Stable Isotopes of Intermediate to Heavy Mass Elements, being organized by Clark Johnson, Francis Albarède, and Brian Beard for the joint AGU-CGU meeting in Montreal, Quebec, in the spring of 2004.

In 2005:

Molecular Geomicrobiology: from genes to geochemical cycles which is being organized by Jill Banfield and Ken Nealson.

It should be mentioned that seven of the recent short courses and/or RiMG volumes have received financial support at a level of approximately $15,000 each from various sources: five from the US Department of Energy, one from the National Science Foundation, and one from the Italian Academy of Science. MSA is grateful to all of these agencies for their financial support.

RiMG Publications: The following RiMG volumes are either now in print or are planned for publication in 2002:

Volume #46 titled Micas: Crystal Chemistry and Metamorphic Petrology edited by A. Mottana, F. P. Sassi, J. B. Thompson, Jr., and Steve Guggenheim is now on sale. This volume is an outgrowth of a short course held in Rome in November, 2000.

Volume #47 titled Noble Gases in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry edited by D. Porcelli, C. Ballentine, and R. Wieler is now on sale. This volume appeared in time for the Goldschmidt Conference held in Davos, Switzerland, in August of this year.

Volume #48 titled Phosphates: Geochemical, Geobiological and Materials Importance edited by Matt Kohn, John Rakovan, and John Hughes appeared in time for the MSA short course that was convened just prior to this meeting and is also on sale at the MSA Business office.

Volume #49 titled Synchrotron Radiation in Low-temperature Geochemistry and Environmental Science edited by Paul Fenter et al. for the Geochemical Society's short course at the Fall AGU meeting, is in press. Thanks go to Jodi Rosso for overseeing publication of this volume.

Volume #50 titled Beryllium: Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry edited by Ed Grew is in press. There is no short course associated with this volume.

Volume #51 titled Plastic Deformation and Deformation Microstructure in Earth Materials edited by Shun-ichiro Karato and H-R. Wenk is being prepared for the accompanying short course at the Fall AGU meeting and should go to press by the end of December.

A special thanks goes to Paul Ribbe as Series Editor for the highly successful and widely cited Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry series. Paul has been the series editor since its inception in 1974 starting with Volume #1 on Sulfide minerals. Council has received notice from Paul that he wishes to step down as series editor, or at least reduce the number of volumes to two per year until a replacement editor can be identified. I believe I speak for all of us in the society in extending a hearty thanks for his 28 years of service and the editing of over 50 RiMG volumes.

MSA Lecture Program

The Lecture Program continues to be one of the more visible and most successful endeavors of the Mineralogical Society of America. This year MSA's lecturers are:

Thomas Armbruster - University of Berne, Switzerland - who is speaking on

Mickey Gunter — University of Idaho - who is speaking on:

Health effects of inhaled dust: Idaho farmers, Libby miners, and New York firefighters

Robert Hazen — Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Geophysical Lab — who is speaking on:

Life's rocky start: Possible roles of minerals in the origin of life.

MSA heartedly thanks these folks for their time and effort in speaking to colleges and universities around North America and Europe, and to Helen Lang for coordinating this program.

We also thank last year's speakers Bob Bodnar, Catherine McCammon, and Roberta Rudnick.

Deaths

I would like to ask the audience to please rise at this time to honor those fellows and members of the society who have passed away this year. Please remain standing and observe a moment of silence after the names have been read.

W. M. D. Bryant, Life Fellow, 1936

Nelson B. Dodge, Life Member, 1945

Perry L. Ehlig, Member, 1959

Paloa Gallitelli, Life Fellow, 1950

George E. Hesselbacher, Jr., Senior Member, 1975

Ian O. Knizek, Life Member, 1946

William S. MacKenzie, Senior Fellow, 1949

Henry C. Mullner, Life Member, 1947

Sidney W. Poole, Life Member, 1945

John Sinkankas, Fellow, 1956

Deane K. Smith, Jr., Senior Fellow, 1954

Lloyd W. Staples, Life Fellow, 1934

Thank you. Please be seated:

Anyone who wishes to prepare a memorial, please contact Alex Speer, in the Business Office, who is serving in the capacity of editor for memorials in the American Mineralogist.

Committees:

MSA's endeavors depend primarily on the volunteer work of its members serving on the many committees that are in place. Speaking as the one who has the privilege of contacting you to serve on these committees, let me extend a special "thank you" for taking the time to help MSA on these various committees. Without your help, MSA could not undertake its many functions to educate, grant money, and continue to serve our profession. Those who would like to volunteer their time and effort to serve on a committee are welcome to contact Dave Jenkins, Alex Speer, or the in-coming chair of the Committee on Committees, Michael Carpenter.

New developments

There are several new publication-related ventures that the society is currently working on. First, MSA is currently working with five other societies and one institution to form an electronic publishing aggregate, as a separate corporation, that is tentatively called GeoscienceWorld. The purpose of this aggregate includes, among other things, providing academic institutions and others easy access to the most comprehensive collection of peer-reviewed geoscience journals that are currently published. It is hoped that, by pooling the efforts of many societies, we will be able to advance scientific communications in the geological sciences in ways that may not be possible by the efforts of individual organizations. One of the primary services that will be provided by this aggregate is access to the full-text content of the journals and other various publications (monographs, field guidebooks, conference proceedings, etc.) of the participating organizations. There are many details to be worked out on the organization, initial funding, and revenue collection for this aggregate. The target date for having this aggregate in full service is 2004.

Second, President Ewing has been instrumental in looking for ways to broaden the range of communication between the various mineralogical and geochemical societies, and perhaps eventually, to the general scientific community. To this end, he has initiated dialog between MSA, the Mineralogical Association of Canada, the Clay Minerals Society, the Geochemical Society, and several other societies to consider the concept of a multi-society publication. It is hoped that this publication would have the readership and circulation that such magazines as Geotimes, Materials Research Society Bulletin, or Physics Today has achieved. Discussions really have only begun on this subject, but it is something that council is quite enthusiastic about and hope that it garners widespread support from the other societies.

Third, MSA acquired the copyright ownership of the Handbook of Mineralogy as a gift from Richard Bideaux in 2001. The Mineralogical Society of America recognizes the value of this gift and the need to keep it current. Accordingly, council has established an editorial office, headed by Dick Bideaux, for the purpose of updating and maintaining the mineral database of the Handbook of Mineralogy and to continue converting the text files to PDF files for on-line access to the Handbook of Mineralogy through the MSA website.

2002 Election results

I am pleased to announce the results of the spring 2002 elections;

The new President of the Society is Douglas Rumble, III

our new Vice President — Michael A. Carpenter

David Jenkins remains in office as Secretary

James Blencoe is Treasurer

and the new Councillors are Barbara L. Dutrow and Rebecca Lange.

They will join the continuing councillors: Craig Manning, Kathryn Nagy, Peter Heaney and Nancy Ross.

We thank the out-going councillors David Bish and Jeffrey Post for 3 years of dedicated service to the society.

A total of 635 ballots were received by the August 1^st deadline, representing 29% of the membership. You are strongly urged to vote as each vote really does make a difference in these closely-contested elections. Let me extend a special thanks to those who ran for office.

Respectfully submitted,

David M. Jenkins, MSA Secretary