Abstract Geological Survey Ireland is a division of a government department and has typical origins as a geological survey founded to map the nation's natural resources. In recent years it has changed focus from more traditional geological mapping activities and methods to carrying out major projects of national societal value using, and developing, the latest technology. Programmes include one of the world's largest seabed surveys INFOMAR, a national groundwater mapping and protection programme, and modern geophysical and geochemical mapping under its Tellus programme. In addition the Survey has developed a successful geoscience research programme and a business cluster, Geoscience Ireland. By focusing on stakeholder engagement, effective communication of the value of geoscience and maintaining scientific rigour, geological surveys can be as relevant today as when they were founded.

ABSTRACT Today, women make up about one-third of all scientists who go to Antarctica for research. However, it was just under fifty years ago that the first woman principal investigator was funded by the then United States Antarctic Research Program, which today is known as the United States Antarctic Program (USAP). Colin Bull, Director of the Institute for Polar Studies (today called Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center or BPCRC), had advocated for women to be allowed in Antarctica since 1959. At the time, female graduate students worked on Antarctic research, but were not able to conduct their own fieldwork; thus they relied on men to collect samples and gather the data they needed up until the ban was lifted. One such woman was Lois Jones, whose Ph.D. adviser was The Ohio State University geochemist Dr. Gunter Faure. Once she completed her dissertation on the geochemistry of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, she submitted a proposal for fieldwork in Antarctica to be funded by the USAP. Her proposal was approved and she and her field party of three other women went to Antarctica during the austral summer of 1969–1970. In addition to fieldwork in the Dry Valleys, they gained the honor of being four of the first six women to make it to the South Pole. While the women faced many challenges and chauvinism, their field season was successful. This has led to a legacy of women in Antarctica. Faculty, alumna, and staff from The Ohio State University figure prominently in this story, due to the affiliation of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center with Ohio State.

ABSTRACT This is one of several chapters based on a themed oral session on “Women and Geology: Who Are We; Where Have We Come From; and Where Are We Going?” presented at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in 2015. In this chapter, I will attempt to describe why I chose geology as a profession, how it has influenced my career, and what I perceive to be major changes in the geoscience field and more broadly science in general. In addition, I will touch on what has and hasn’t changed and what needs to happen to effect change as well as some ideas with which we can all identify and perhaps make conscious decisions to improve upon. A few lessons learned are interspersed with the hope that some may be useful to those beginning their scientific careers. I chose a career in federal government research rather than academia and that has taken me to places I never would have dreamed possible. A few references are provided to underscore my remarks and personal opinions but in no way are they intended to provide a comprehensive review of the subjects discussed nor do they reflect the views of any federal agency.

ABSTRACT The Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG), founded in 1977, is a non-profit organization that encourages women to pursue a career in the geosciences; enhances their professional development and career opportunities; and exchanges educational, technical, and professional information among women scientists. This chapter chronicles the 40-year history of this organization, including its formation, successes, and struggles. In addition, it highlights (1) the evolution of the role of AWG to combat the barriers that women have faced since its formation, and (2) how this role must evolve in the future in hopes of finally achieving gender equality in the geosciences.

ABSTRACT Informal networks play a critical role in advancing careers by providing peer support. This is particularly important in fields where women are grossly underrepresented, because peer networks can reduce feelings of isolation and provide access to information and opportunities for professional development. The power of networks lies in their ability to mobilize people and information for educational and institutional change. Here we highlight the example of the Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN), which grew from a group of six female graduate students and postdocs to a non-profit organization with more than 3,000 members worldwide in 15 years. ESWN’s activities support women at all career stages and include a program for undergraduate students. Today, ESWN is partnering with larger professional societies to improve work climate conditions and shape a more inclusive society, particularly in light of incidences of sexual harassment. We describe the evolution of ESWN in response to membership needs and as a model for online and in-person community building. The ESWN community supports peer mentoring that builds upon personal connections to catalyze cultural and institutional change for the advancement and promotion of women in the geosciences.

Abstract One hundred years ago, standards in geological report writing were formalized within the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Chief Geologist Josef Theodor Erb defined these standards in an internal report aimed at geologists working for Shell subsidiaries. His purpose was to raise the level of scientific reporting and to provide a measure of uniformity in geological reports sent to head office from all parts of the world. Ultimately, ‘Uniformity in Geological Reports’ was to allow the chief geologist to readily identify and follow-up on the better business opportunities. With time, Erb’s report developed into the Shell ‘Standard Legend’. Erb’s career is symptomatic of a developing company culture, which he embraced as his life’s goal. Realizing the shortcomings of this narrow personal philosophy of life may have been at the root of the mental problems that led to his death.

Abstract Simon Papp (1886–1970) is regarded as the ‘father’ of Hungarian petroleum exploration. He was also considered internationally as an exceptional oil finder, as his exploration career took him from Hungary to Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Albania, Canada, Australia and Papua New Guinea. In 1932, Dr Papp returned to Hungary and became engaged in exploration in western Hungary, working for EUROGASCO (an international consortium headed by Standard Oil of New Jersey). His prospecting work was very successful, resulting in the discovery of four oil fields with reserves totalling about 100 MMbbl (million barrels). In 1948, after returning from a trip to the USA, Dr Papp was arrested by the communist secret police in Hungary, allegedly because of sabotage and attempting to overthrow the communist government. After being forced to ‘confess’, he was sentenced to death but, probably due to worldwide protest by scientific organizations, the sentence was changed to life in prison. As his exceptional knowledge of the petroleum industry was a major asset, the communist regime arranged for him to continue his work from his prison cell. He was finally released from prison in 1955 and lived in retirement in Budapest until his death in 1970.

Abstract The study of the Earth’s origin, its composition, the processes that changed and shaped it over time and the fossils preserved in rocks, have occupied enquiring minds from ancient times. The contributions in this volume trace the history of ideas and the research of scholars in a wide range of geological disciplines that have paved the way to our present-day understanding and knowledge of the physical nature of our planet and the diversity of life that inhabited it. To mark the 50 th anniversary of the founding of the International Commission on the History of Geology, the book features contributions that give insights into its establishment and progress. In other sections authors reflect on the value of studying the history of the geosciences and provide accounts of early investigations in fields as diverse as tectonics, volcanology, geomorphology, vertebrate palaeontology and petroleum geology. Other papers discuss the establishment of geological surveys, the contribution of women to geology and biographical sketches of noted scholars in various fields of geoscience.

The Bottaccione Gorge at Gubbio, Italy, a source of many discoveries in Earth history, was first recognized as an outstanding geological section by Guido Bonarelli (1871–1951). Bonarelli is remembered today mainly for the meter-thick Bonarelli Level, the local manifestation of oceanic anoxic event 2 (OAE 2), which he first recognized and described. Setting aside Bonarelli’s long and distinguished career as a petroleum geologist in Borneo and Argentina, this paper concentrates on his role in the long and difficult effort to date the Scaglia rossa pelagic limestone of the Bottaccione Gorge and the surrounding Umbria-Marche Apennines. Old photographs show a barren Bottaccione Gorge a century ago; Bonarelli apparently had much better outcrops than we do today, after reforestation shortly before the middle of the twentieth century. In the absence of macrofossils, and with the inability to extract isolated foraminifera from these hard limestones, the Scaglia was dated indirectly in the late nineteenth century, and believed to be entirely of Cretaceous age, implying errors as great as 40 m.y. We can now understand why this dating seemed satisfactory at the time, because it did not conflict with Charles Lyell’s view that there should be a huge hiatus corresponding to a major faunal overturn like the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, and because thrust faulting that contradicted it had not yet been discovered. The K-Pg boundary was correctly placed within the Scaglia in 1936 when Otto Renz identified the foraminifera in thin section. Renz wrote with pleasure of a field trip with Bonarelli, who later presented Renz’s new dating to the Società Geologica Italiana on a 1940 field trip to Gubbio. These two are the predecessors of all the geologists who have worked in the Bottaccione Gorge since the Second World War.

Abstract Arthur Smith Woodward commanded international respect and acclaim. He was honoured in scientific circles from Russia to the Americas and throughout Europe, particularly for his outstanding work on fossil fish. He was distinguished in both his exceptional abilities as a vertebrate palaeontologist and in his tall, authoritative presence. He appeared confident, contained and in control, while his intellectual gifts had been apparent from a very early age. He was a remarkable scientist, but a man whose reputation has for too long been seen through the prism of the Piltdown forgery.

Abstract When an 18-year-old Arthur Smith Woodward arrived at the new home of the natural history collections of the British Museum on Cromwell Road, South Kensington in August 1882, he could not have envisaged the treasure trove of vertebrate fossils that awaited him. Even before the move to South Kensington, the collections already contained many fossil fish specimens first described and figured by the famous Swiss zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz in his monumental work Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles . The fabulous fossil fish collections of Lord Egerton and the Earl of Enniskillen arrived shortly after, including many more of Agassiz’s type specimens. However, Agassiz had left much work undone and ideas on fossil fish systematics had changed in the 50 years since he had started publishing his research. Making full use of the collection, and adding to it, Smith Woodward embarked on a scientific career that was to see him become the world’s leading authority on fossil fishes. When he retired from the Museum at the age of 60, his successors inherited the most extensive and well-documented collection of fossil fishes in the world.