Los Alamos' Scott Baldridge receives award for SAGE program from Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206 (00-089)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., June 21, 2000 -- Scott Baldridge, co-director of the Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, has received an award from the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Baldridge, of Los Alamos' Geology and Geochemistry Group, is co-director of SAGE with George Jiracek of the Department of Geological Sciences at San Diego State University. Baldridge and Jiracek will receive the society's Special Commendation Award at the Society of Exploration Geophysicists' 2000 annual meeting in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in August.

The award recognizes their "exceptional efforts in developing and directing the SAGE Program."

The Society of Exploration Geophysicists is an international organization with more than 16,500 members from academia and industry in 110 countries.

"This award is a pat on the back for the tremendous amount of effort SAGE takes," said Baldridge, who has worked at Los Alamos since 1978 and has co-directed SAGE for 13 years. "It's also an endorsement of our educational programs and of the efforts we expend on behalf of students. It certainly brings a lot of visibility to the educational activities at Los Alamos."

The Laboratory's Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics is the host sponsor of SAGE. Los Alamos' IGPP director, Charles "Chick" Keller said of Baldridge: "Perhaps Scott's most important attribute is vision for what SAGE can accomplish through its students. Anyone he talks to catches his enthusiasm for both the opportunities for education and research, and it's not long before Scott has many of them agreeing to come to the next SAGE to give lectures and work with the students."

Since SAGE started at Los Alamos in 1983, nearly 450 students have completed the program, including some students from foreign countries.

The 2000 SAGE program, which began June 17, involves 32 students, six faculty, two teaching assistants and more than a dozen representatives from industry. Students come from 26 e colleges and universities.

They will conduct a variety of geophysical studies in the Los Alamos area and west of Santa Fe. Participating students will conduct seismic, electromagnetic and gravity studies near the Santa Fe River Canyon west of Santa Fe and also search for subsurface pipes and other utility infrastructure at a site in Los Alamos west of Los Alamos Airport along East Road.

The SAGE program also has a World Wide Web site at http://geont1.lanl.gov/sage/sage.htm online.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy.

More news releases from the Earth and Environmental Science (EES) Division