Undergraduate Honors

Steven K. Fox Award

The Steven K. Fox Student Fund was established in the memory of ?Steve? Fox, Professor of Geological Sciences at Rutgers from 1948-1981. Dr. Richard K. Olsson summarized Steve?s accomplishments well in his Memento read at Steve?s Memorial service on April 11, 1987. An excerpt gives a flavor
(full text available http://geology.rutgers.edu/pdf/redbeds2005.pdf ):

"Steve taught Paleontology and Stratigraphy continuously since joining Rutgers in 1948. His method of teaching was to expose students as often as and as much as possible to geology in the field. Fridays were field trip days. It became an accustomed sight in the morning to see Steve and his students boarding the field vans for a day in the field, and at night to see them return all enthusiastic from what they had seen that day. Later in his teaching career at Rutgers he became involved in the field geology course which took place around the Delaware Water Gap. Each year students were exposed to his expertise of the geology of this area. In recognition of his teaching skills, Steve was given in 1978 the Rutgers College award of distinction as a member of the Society of Outstanding Teachers." R.K. Olsson, 1987

Many of us fondly remember the classic Fox stops on the Friday field trips, many of which are still visited annually in our major classes (e.g., Big Brook, "Black Hill" of Rt. 34, Pebble Bluff, and Johnny's Hot Dog Stand). We hold firm to the teaching values imparted by Steve and our faculty strive to maintain the fostering environment of the department that typified Steve's teaching and mentoring. We established the Steven K. Fox Student Fund specifically to support undergraduate and graduate student research, field work, field camps. Our goal to convert this fund to an endowed fund once the principal has grown.

Coley Campbell will received a $500 scholarship from the Steven K Fox Fund for participating in an external field camp. He will attend the Lehigh University Geology Field Course in the northern Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Idaho from Wednesday, June 7 through Saturday, July 8, 2006.

Katelynn G. Coleman will received a $500 scholarship from the Steven K Fox Fund for participating in an external field camp. She will attend the University of Arkansas Geology of the Northern Rockies from May 16 - June 26, 2006.

Theresa Johnson will received a $500 scholarship from the Steven K Fox Fund for participating in an external field camp. She will attend Boise State's Sardinia program May 20th-June 23rd.

In 2005, the Department of Geological Sciences awarded support for the Penn-YBRA Field Camp to the following undergraduates:
1) Alissa Stanley will receive $250 from the Steven K. Fox fund and $250 from the Helgi Johnson fund through RC.
2) Elizabeth Hawxhurst will receive $250 from the Steven K. Fox fund and $250 from the Helgi Johnson fund through RC.
3) Aaron Weshnak will receive $250 from the Steven K. Fox fund.

Vinton Gwinn Prize

2008 Erick F. Geiger

2006 Emily Bjonnes

At RUG undergraduate Emily Bjonnes worked in the Rutgers University Microanalysis facility with supervision by Jerry Delaney on a project to characterize a suite of six Antarctic meteorites called eucrites, Eucrites are believed to be samples of Vesta the smallest differentiated planet in the solar system and the second largest body in the main asteroid belt. Emily performed detailed microanalytical on mineral grains in the samples, interpreted the petrology and integrated the results with a larger suite of Vestan samples that have been studied here art Rutgers over the past 10 years. These results will help constrain results from the first long duration orbital study of an asteroid to be returned by the NASA "Dawn Mission" which should launch June-October 2007 with arrival at Vesta in 2009-10. Emily has now moved on to do graduate study on the planet Venus in Minnesota.

2004 Kathryn Rose and Lauren Neitzke

The Department of Geological Sciences is delighted to award the 2004 Vinton Gwinn prize to Kathryn Rose and Lauren Neitzke

Support for the Penn-YBRA Field Camp awarded to Geology Undergraduates

Many thanks to Muffin Lord of RC for locating the long-lost Helgi Johnson funds. Many thanks to recent alumni contributions for helping establish the Steven K. Fox Student Fund. These awards are deeply appreciated by the students. I personally remember the $100 award I received to attend YBRA. Back then the cost was only $1200. Now it is over $2500 to attend YBRA and we are delighted to be able to help. Our students continue to distinguish Rutgers at every field camp that they attend.