Grove is AGU president-elect

An MIT geology professor whose research focuses on the processes that led to the formation of Earth’s crust and mantle has taken office as president-elect of the American Geophysical Union.

Timothy L. Grove, whose two-year term began 1 July, told Physics Today he was “very honored to be chosen by [his] colleagues.” He will become the union’s president for a two-year term in 2008.

In a prepared statement, Grove said he feels a responsibility to support and further the work of the organization. “I think that AGU does the best job of any geophysical society in fostering scientific excellence through its meetings and publications and that it provides the most effective medium for communicating with the public and government,” he stated.

“I’ll be involved with AGU for the next six years,” Grove said to Physics Today. “A lot is bound to happen during that time, and my priorities will no doubt evolve considerably to meet the changing situations that the Union will encounter.”

Grove earned a BA in geology in 1971 from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a PhD in geology in 1976 from Harvard University. He’s been a member of the MIT faculty since 1979; he served from 1993 to 1994 as a visiting scientist at the University of Cape Town, from 1997 to 2001 as a research scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, and in 2002 as a visiting professor at ETH Zürich. Grove was named an AGU fellow in 2001.

Other newly elected AGU officers include general secretary Carol Finn (US Geological Survey) and international secretary Jaime Urrutia Fucugauchi (Institute of Geophysics, National Autonomous University of Mexico).