KU scientist elected president of international geological society


Evan Franseen


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LAWRENCE — Evan Franseen, Kansas Geological Survey senior scientific fellow and professor of geology at the University of Kansas, has been elected president of the largest and one of the oldest international societies in the field of sedimentary geology.

In February 2012, Franseen started serving a three-year term — first as president-elect, then president, then past president — of the Society of Sedimentary Geology, an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination of information on sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleontology, environmental sciences, marine geology, hydrogeology and related specialties.

“SEPM is a major scientific society, and election to its presidency is an honor and a recognition of Evan's standing within the discipline of sedimentary geology,” said Rex Buchanan, director of the Kansas Geological Survey.

Sedimentary geologists explore the age and composition of rock layers, distribution of fossils, and geophysical and geochemical properties of rocks. Their findings can be used to enhance the study of natural resources, including water, oil and gas, coal and industrial minerals.

As a specialist in geologic stratigraphy and sedimentology, Franseen studies the ways rocks are deposited and the way those deposits change over time. He has investigated deposits ranging in age from 2 million years to 500 million years to add to the understanding of the geologic processes that resulted in oil- and gas-bearing rocks.

Joining the Survey in 1989 and the KU Department of Geology in 2007, Franseen has received grant and contract funding for research from a number of agencies, including the Kansas Department of Transportation, National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as multiple oil companies.

Franseen has written or co-authored more than 150 scientific publications and reports and has edited several books. He has been associate editor of SEPM’s journal PALAIOS and served on the editorial board for the journal Geology, and he has served as vice-chair for the Sedimentary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America.

SEPM supports the professional endeavors of its approximately 3,500 members worldwide through research and educational opportunities as well as by publishing books and two major scientific journals.

Fri, 03/09/2012

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Evan Franseen

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