AGU rewards work of six

A new international honor and two others that recognize excellence in science-related reporting are among several awards recently distributed to six recipients by the American Geophysical Union.

AGU chose Uppugunduri Aswathanarayana as the recipient of its newest decoration, the Award for International Research Cooperation. Aswathanarayana, the honorary director of the Mahadevan International Centre for Water Resources Management in Hyderabad, India, was selected “for serving science and society in less developed countries by training geoscience personnel and developing geoscience infrastructure to promote self-reliance in these countries.”

Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling, and Betsy Mason won AGU’s 2007 journalism awards, whose focus this year was on reporting about natural hazards and human impact on the environment. Weiss and McFarling received the Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism–Features for their series “Altered Oceans,” published in the Los Angeles Times. The award selection committee said the series “is ambitious in scope, global in significance, and powerful in rendering judgment.” The winning articles were published on 30 July and 1 and 3 August 2006. Weiss is a staff writer at the LA Times and McFarling is a freelance science writer.

Mason, the science and national laboratories reporter at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek, California, received the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism–News for her series on the centennial of the San Francisco earthquake, based on a conference commemorating the event. In choosing Mason’s articles, the selection committee said, “Mason … provide[d] scientists with new insights [and] alerted readers … that a strong earthquake in northern California could devastate … the city of Sacramento and a significant portion of the state’s water supply.” The winning articles, part of a longer series, were published on 17, 18, and 20 April 2006.

The Edward A. Flinn III Award was handed to Diane Wickland “in recognition of her lifelong contributions to the international geophysical science community.” Wickland is manager of NASA’s terrestrial ecology program in Washington, DC.

Michael Mayhew received the Excellence in Geophysical Education Award “for significant and long lasting cultural changes in the community such that geophysical education is embraced across the discipline and the development of a community dedicated to advancing the understanding of how we teach and learn about Earth.” Mayhew is principal of Synoptic LLC in Ocean City, Maryland.