Renowned paleontologist to speak at annual Chauncey D. Holmes Award Ceremony and Lecture April 15

Renowned paleontologist to speak at annual Chauncey D. Holmes Award Ceremony and Lecture April 15April 09, 2002Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Richard Fortey, a senior paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London and author of several books, will present “The Natural History of Trilobites” at 7 p.m. April 15 in Heroy Auditorium in Syracuse University’s Heroy Geology Building. The lecture, part of the annual Chauncey D. Holmes Award Ceremony and Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Earth Sciences in The College of Arts and Sciences, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture and awards presentation.

Six undergraduate students will receive awards for excellence in introductory geology courses during the event. The students are freshman Garrett R. Kruser; sophomores Evan M. Isaacson, John D. Merriell and Jessica M. Mohr; and juniors Matthew T. Thornton and Joshua L. Vermette.

In addition to his position at the Natural History Museum, Fortey is the 2002 Collier Chair in the Public Understanding of Science and Technology at Bristol University’s Institute for Advanced Studies. In 1997, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. His books include “Fossils: The Key to the Past” (Smithsonian Institution Press 2002), “Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), “Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth” (Random House, 1999); and “The Hidden Landscape,” which was named the 1993 Natural World Book of the Year.

The Chauncey D. Holmes Award was established by Holmes, a 1927 SU graduate and esteemed geologist, to recognize outstanding introductory geology students.