Professor of Geological Science Ron Martin has been elected president of the North American Micropaleontological Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology. He brings to the position an extensive research background and a strong desire to support his profession.
The section, which has more than 300 members from the United States and abroad, promotes all aspects of micropaleontology through application, research and education. It represents individuals from a range of professions, from the petroleum industry to academia. Although the organization has in the past focused on petroleum-related issues, Martin explained that in recent years it has worked to address environmental problems.
In his new role, one of Martin’s primary duties will be to serve as technical program co-chair with Pete McLaughlin, senior scientist with the Delaware Geological Survey, to review, select and organize abstracts for a research meeting called Microfossils II, which will be held in March 2009. His own research recently has focused on marshes and the formation and preservation of microfossil assemblages in marshes and how they are used to reconstruct sea level changes in the last 10,000 years known as the Holocene.