Monday, August 31, 7PM, Ethics and Geology

AGS will kick off its meetings with a talk on "Ethics for Geoscientists" by Dr. Sharon Mosher, Dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences on Monday, August 31, 7PM.

This talk may satisfy the annual Professional Geoscience requirement for practicing geoscience in Texas as required by the TBPG.

Please come prepared to renew your annual AGS membership ($20).

Location:
ROC building, PRC campus (adjacent and behind the BEG)

Abstract:

Professional ethics for geoscientists provide principles of conduct to govern decisions and actions within our profession. Like all ethics, the principles of behavior are based on morals, but applied to our professional, as well as personal, life. As professional geoscientists we have responsibilities to our employer, employees, students, associates, clients, and our profession. But we also have larger responsibilities as well to the public, science in general, and the environment. In this talk I will discuss guiding principals for each of these responsibilities as well as common ethical standards and issues. Ethical reasoning requires clear, logical thinking, arguments based on facts, and the ability to understand and articulate different points of view. The overall expectation of geoscientists is that we will recognize the difference between right and wrong and chose to do what is right, thereby adhering to the highest standards of conduct and maintaining both our personal and professional integrity. Our personal ethics are developed early through our observations of and interactions with our parents, families and teachers. Society, our culture and, in many cases religion, help shape our value system. As we become adults, we strive to balance our personal ethics with those of professional groups and legal and regulatory guidelines. Moreover, everyday decisions made in our occupations often cause ethical dilemmas. Resolution of ethical dilemmas is best handled by separately evaluating the consequences and the potential actions and then making a decision that involves weighing the relative importance of conflicting principles. Ethical geoscientists are necessary to protect the public, the environment, our professions, businesses and individuals within our professions and businesses.

Dr. Sharon Mosher

Dr. Sharon Mosher, chair of the Department of Geological Sciences in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin since 2007, is dean of the Jackson School effective July 1, 2009. A faculty member at the university since 1978, she holds the William Stamps Farish Chair.

Mosher is a past president of the Geological Society of America (GSA), the oldest geoscience society in the United States, and past chair of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, an organization representing 1.5 million scientists nationwide. She is a founder and current chair of GeoScienceWorld, an international journal aggregation for geoscientists. Among her awards and honors she is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, from which she received the Distinguished Service Award in 2003, and an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of London.

She has held major leadership roles in GSA since 1980, serving as the first chairman of the Division of Structural Geology and Tectonics, GSA’s largest division; a councilor (1992-1995 and 2000-2002); and chair of numerous committees, including the Annual Program Committee (1996-2000) which restructured and revitalized GSA’s Annual Meetings. She was a leading member of the Texas State Board of Education Earth Science Task Force (starting in 2002) and its successor group, the Texas Earth Science Alliance, instrumental in making four years of science and math required for Texas high school students, which in turn made it possible for students to receive science credit for earth science courses. She has served on and led a range of task forces and committees for the National Science Foundation, USGS, and other national organizations.

Mosher's research involves structural petrology and field-oriented structural geology. Her primary research interests are in the evolution of complexly deformed terranes, strain analysis, deformation mechanisms, and the interaction between chemical and physical processes during deformation. Her research investigations include evolution of modern and ancient plate boundaries and deformation of the deep to mid-crust. Mosher currently has three active research areas: the Mesoproterozoic of Texas, the Australian-Pacific oceanic plate boundary south of New Zealand, and the southwestern U.S. Mesozoic Maria Tectonic belt.

A recipient of the Association of Women Geologists Outstanding Educator Award (1990) and university awards for excellence in teaching, she has taught regularly at the undergraduate and graduate level and supervised numerous graduate students. For 15 years she directed the university's geology summer field camp, the largest undergraduate summer field course in the country.

Mosher received her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1978 and M.Sc. from Brown University in 1975.