Journal of Paleontology, 92(5), 2018, p. 942 Copyright © 2018, The Paleontological Society 0022-3360/15/0088-0906 doi: 10.1017/jpa.2018.49
Awards and Citations
Presentation of the 2016 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award to Ronald Parsley
Colin D. Sumrall Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA ⟨
csumrall@utk.edu⟩
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and colleagues, it is with great pleasure that I speak on behalf of Dr. Ronald L. Parsley, Professor Emeritus at Tulane University, the recipient of the Paleontological Society’s Pojeta Award for 2017. Ron has been a fixture of our field since the 1960s and did much of the formative work on homalozoan echinoderms. Ron received his Bachelor’s Degree from UCLA and MS and PhD Degrees from the University of Cincinnati under Kenneth E. Caster. It is fitting that Ron is receiving the Pojeta Award and all too poignant with the sad news of John’s passing earlier this year. Ron has been a lifelong friend of John and Mary Lou Pojeta, who took him under their wing 57 years ago when he first arrived in Cincinnati to start his graduate studies. Ron has played an important role in fostering the
exchange of paleontological data and ideas between the East- ern Block and the West, both during and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He has worked extensively in the Czech Republic and Russia describing the echinoderm faunas—many for the first time in English—and building relationships with local scientists and institutions that continue to this day. More recently, he began collaborations in China that have led to a series of papers that provide a new look at Cambrian echino- derm faunas. One of the most profound aspect of Ron’s impact on our
field is his generosity of both expertise and time. Ron loves nothing better than to help others and learn from their dis- coveries. Whether he is assisting a young researcher make local contacts, teaching the lost art of making latex casts of fossils, or hosting the Friends of the Echinoderm meeting each year at GSA, Ron’s ever-present smile benefits us all and makes the Paleontological Society a better organization. Ron’s long history of international work inspired him to
take on the responsibility of chairing the PalSIRP/Sepkoski Grants Committee. Since 1997, Ron has been the driving force behind the success of this program, which has jumpstarted the careers of many young scientists by facilitating paleontological research in countries where the potential is great, but resources
are few. Ron has been the international face of this program for 20 years, and it is no understatement that he has been, in a very real sense, the Paleontological Society’s international ambas- sador. He has been the visionary behind the program’s con- tinuing success, and his tireless service has raised the reputation of the Paleontological Society, and been a driving factor behind international paleontological collaboration. In 2016, Ron, along with the Paleontological Society, was awarded a special medal by the Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences honoring the PalSIRP/Sepkoski Grants program and its impact on Russian Paleontology. More recently, Ron has argued for—and ultimately
received—an increase in the level of funding from the PS Council for this grant program. Last year, the Sepkoski Grants program was expanded to Latin America. This year, nine countries were represented by awardees, including the first funded proposals from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In 2018 the programwill expand to include Africa, furthering the impact our society is having on the international paleontology community. The success of this program is very much the result of the
enormous amount of effort that Ron puts into the Sepkoski Grants program each year. He sends out announcements to institutions and researchers all over the world advertising the program, requests letters of support, collates the files, and has them reviewed by a three-person committee. Once the com- mittee decided on awardees, he begins the painstaking process of legally sending the awarded funds to recipients in countries that often have Byzantine laws and complex international agreements with the United States. Through the years he has managed to navigate these tricky waters and get the job done in a timely and efficient manner. For his years of service to the Paleontological Society, its
membership, and serving as our point of contact to the larger international community, I think of no one more deserving of the Pojeta Award than Dr. Ronald L. Parsley.
October 22, 2017
942
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207
