Sharon Mosher
Sharon Mosher is an American geologist. She did her undergraduate work at University of Illinois at Urbana. After earning an M.Sc. from Brown University, she returned to Illinois-Urbana to get her Ph.D. in Geology in 1978.[1] Since 2001 she has held the William Stamps Farish Chair at University of Texas, and, since 2009 she has served as the Dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at Texas.[2] In 2013 she became the President of the American Geosciences Institute.[3]
Sharon Mosher | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Brown University University of Illinois |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Geology |
Institutions | University of Texas |
She was a founder of GeoScienceWorld, an international journal aggregation for geoscientists.[4] Among her awards and honors, she is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, from which she received the Distinguished Service Award in 2003, after serving as its president in 2001, and an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of London.[4] In 2001 she was named Outstanding Educator by the Association for Women Geoscientists.[5]
Research
Her primary research interests are in the evolution of complexly deformed terranes, strain analysis, deformation mechanisms, and the interaction between chemical and physical processes during deformation.[1]
Mosher's research involves structural petrology and field-oriented structural geology. She created and tested a new model for the collisional orogen along the southern margin of Laurentia, with specific emphasis on the Sierra Diablo foothills of west Texas and the Llano uplift of central Texas.[6] She also studied the evolution of the Macquarie Ridge Complex, the Pacific-Australian plate boundary south of New Zealand, exploring how strain was divided during the boundary’s evolution, the processes that allowed the deformation, and the discontinuation of magmatism.[6] Another of her research projects focused on the partitioning of different types of strain during formation of ductile non-coaxial shear zones in both extensional and contractional environments, including the development of corrugations in metamorphic core complexes and the formation of rods and mullions in thrust nappes.[6]
Academic experience
Mosher is currently a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin, and has been a faculty member at the University of Texas since 1978.[7] She has been a full time professor specializing in structural geology, structural petrology and tectonics since 1990, teaching students at both the undergraduate and graduate level and has supervised 19 Ph.D students and 35 M.S. students.[8] She has 33 years of field and mapping experience, and was a Field Camp director for 15 years.[8] Her dedication to teaching earned her the Association of Women Geologists Outstanding Educator award in 1990 as well as the Joseph C. Walter Jr. Excellence Award in 2005.[9]
Personal life
As a child in Illinois, Sharon Mosher was fascinated by geology, conducting mineral tests on rocks in the chemistry lab her dad set up for her in their basement. She decided she wanted to be a geologist the moment she learned that’s what you call a person who studies rocks.[10]
Mosher’s father would take her as a child on Illinois State Geological Survey field trips, and whenever her family went on their annual vacation, Mosher would map the route, figuring out stops where she and her older sister could find rocks. Today, Mosher still hunts for rocks and maps out routes—only she is now mapping future paths for the acclaimed Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 2009, she has been Dean of the school, the largest geosciences academic institution in the country. Mosher is also known worldwide for her research on mountain formation millions of years ago when continents collided. She brought new life to two major geological associations, and helped spearhead a national initiative to evaluate what undergraduate students in geosciences across the country need to know.[11]
Publications
“Ridge reorientation mechanisms: Macquarie Ridge Complex, Australia-Pacific plate boundary”[12]
“Paleoenvironmental and tectonic controls of sedimentation in coal-forming basins of southeastern New England”[13]
“Structural and tectonic evolution of Mesozoic basement-involved fold nappes and thrust faults in the Dome Rock Mountains, Arizona”[14]
“Tectonic evolution of the eastern Llano uplift, central Texas: A record of Grenville orogenesis along the southern Laurentian margin”[15]
“Tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian Grenville orogenic belt”[16]
“Laurentia‐Kalahari Collision and the Assembly of Rodinia”[17]
“Kinematic history of the Narragansett Basin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island: Constraints on Late Paleozoic plate reconstructions”[18]
Service
- Past Chair, Council of Scientific Society Presidents, (2005)
- Chair, Board of Directors, Geoscience World Board (2004-2006)
- Member, Advisory Board, GEON (2004-2007)
- Chair, Council of Scientific Society Presidents (2004)
- Chair-Elect, Council of Scientific Society Presidents (2003)
- Board Member, Council of Scientific Society Presidents (2001)
- President, Geological Society of America (2000 - 2001)
- Ex- Officio, Member of all 21 GSA Committees, Geological Society of America (2000 - 2001)
- Vice President, Geological Society of America (1999 - 2000)
- Chairman, Committee of Young Scientist Award, Geological Society of America (1993)
- Councilor, Geological Society of America (1992 - 1995)
- Ex-Official Member, U.S. National Committee, Geology (1991 - 1993)
- Chairman, Undergraduate Curriculum Review Committee, (1990 - 1995)
- Vice-Chairman, U.S. National Committee, International Geologic Correlation Program (1987 - 1990)
- Chairman, Division of Structural Geology and Tectonics, Geological Society of America (1981 - 1982)
References
- "Mosher Research". University of Texas. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "GSA Member News Archive". Geological Society of America. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "AGI Announces Sharon Mosher as its 2013 President" (PDF). American Geosciences Institute. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "Sharon Mosher, National Geoscience Leader, Becomes Dean of Jackson School of Geosciences". Geology News. June 16, 2009.
- "AWG Outstanding Educator Award". Association for Women Geoscientists. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
- "Sharon Mosher - Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences". www.geo.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- "Sharon Mosher | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin". www.jsg.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- "Sharon Mosher - Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences". www.geo.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-04.
- "Sharon Mosher | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin". www.jsg.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
- "Down to Earth With: Sharon Mosher". EARTH Magazine. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
- Peterson, Doug (2016-10-24). "Rocking the geosciences". College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois. Retrieved 2019-02-07.
- Mosher, Sharon; Symons, Christina Massell (2008-02-01). "Ridge reorientation mechanisms: Macquarie Ridge Complex, Australia-Pacific plate boundary". Geology. 36 (2): 119. Bibcode:2008Geo....36..119M. doi:10.1130/G24236A.1. ISSN 0091-7613.
- "Paleoenvironmental and tectonic controls of sedimentation in coal-forming basins of southeastern New England | Paleoenvironmental and Tectonic Controls in Coal-Forming Basins in the United States | GeoScienceWorld Books | GeoScienceWorld". pubs.geoscienceworld.org. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
- "Structural and tectonic evolution of Mesozoic basement-involved fold nappes and thrust faults in the Dome Rock Mountains, Arizona | Contributions to Crustal Evolution of the Southwestern United States | GeoScienceWorld Books | GeoScienceWorld". pubs.geoscienceworld.org. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
- "Tectonic evolution of the eastern Llano uplift, central Texas: A record of Grenville orogenesis along the southern Laurentian margin | Proterozoic Tectonic Evolution of the Grenville Orogen in North America | GeoScienceWorld Books | GeoScienceWorld". pubs.geoscienceworld.org. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
- Mosher, Sharon (1998-11-01). "Tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian Grenville orogenic belt". GSA Bulletin. 110 (11): 1357–1375. Bibcode:1998GSAB..110.1357M. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1998)110<1357:TEOTSL>2.3.CO;2. ISSN 0016-7606.
- Dalziel, Ian W. D.; Mosher, Sharon; Gahagan, Lisa M. (2000-09-01). "Laurentia‐Kalahari Collision and the Assembly of Rodinia". The Journal of Geology. 108 (5): 499–513. Bibcode:2000JG....108..499D. doi:10.1086/314418. ISSN 0022-1376.
- Mosher, Sharon (1983-08-01). "Kinematic history of the Narragansett Basin, Massachusetts and Rhode Island: Constraints on Late Paleozoic plate reconstructions". Tectonics. 2 (4): 327–344. Bibcode:1983Tecto...2..327M. doi:10.1029/TC002i004p00327. ISSN 1944-9194.
- "Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin". www.jsg.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2019-02-07.