by Dave Rubin and Helen Gibbons, PCMSC

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details

Geologist Amy Draut will receive the 2009 James Lee Wilson Award for "Excellence in Sedimentary Geology by a Young Scientist" from the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) at their annual meeting in Denver this June. Draut earned a B.S. in geological sciences and environmental studies from Tufts University in 1997, and a Ph.D. in marine geology and geophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in March 2003. After a summer of fieldwork in the Talkeetna Mountains of Alaska, studying volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks of a Jurassic island-arc complex, Draut came to the USGS in fall 2003 to do postdoctoral research with Dave Rubin of the Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team. She investigated eolian sediment transport in the Grand Canyon and the role of eolian sedimentation in the preservation of archeological sites. Her postdoctoral research expanded to include modeling of sedimentation processes in watersheds and coastal regions. In February 2006, she joined the team as a Research Geologist.

Draut has worked on a wide variety of geologic problems, including studies of modern dune, river, coast, shelf, and trench sediment deposits as well as ancient sedimentary and volcanic rocks. She has published papers on sedimentation, stratigraphy, and geomorphic evolution of the Gulf Coast; sedimentary processes in modern and ancient oceanic island-arc settings; the stratigraphic and geochemical evolution of arc volcanism; the genesis of continental crust in Ireland and Alaska; millennial-scale climate variations recorded in isotopic data from North Atlantic foraminifera; and the role of fluvial and eolian processes in the preservation of archeological sites in the Grand Canyon.

The James Lee Wilson Award is presented to young geoscientists "who have achieved a significant record of research accomplishments in sedimentary geology, including all aspects of modern and ancient sedimentology, stratigraphy, and paleontology, fundamental and applied." Established in 1996, it was named in honor of James Lee Wilson, an "internationally recognized expert on geology of carbonate sedimentary rocks and paleontologist."