Our Chairman, Professor Keith Clarke, is a recipient of a 2005 John Wesley Powell Award which is given to organizations and individuals that have made significant contributions to the advancement of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) mission. P. Patrick Leahy, the Acting Director of the USGS, praised Keith for his leadership role in the field of Geography and for having made “significant influential contributions to the USGS mission through your work with the National Research Council.” Leahy goes on to say:
As a member of the Geography Science Planning Team (SPT), you provided the Team with an invaluable perspective from the leading edge of your field of expertise which, coupled with your keen knowledge of the USGS, helped keep the GIScience at the forefront of the Plan. By virtue of experience and personal integrity, you were successful in challenging the SPT to break with the traditional boundaries imposed on geography in the USGS and to proceed with a bold vision of a new research-oriented discipline at the USGS. Your presence as a full contributing member of the SPT increased the Team’s credibility when meeting with a wide range of scientists, managers, and leaders from inside and outside the USGS. Your outstanding contributions to shaping the future of geographic research in the USGS were immense.
The award is named for distinguished scientist and early USGS leader John Wesley Powell (1834-1902), an important American ethnologist, geologist, and explorer of the Grand Canyon and Rocky Mountain region. As the nation’s largest water, earth, and biological science and civilian mapping agency, the USGS collects, monitors, analyzes, and provides scientific understanding about natural resource conditions, issues, and problems. Only four awards are made annually (in the categories of State and Local Government; Educational Institution; Private Citizens/Groups/Organizations; and Industry). The award is the USGS’s highest award for achievement, and Keith will officially receive his (in the Educational Institution category) at USGS headquarters in Reston, Virginia, on October 27, 2005.
