2018 Distinguished Lectureship - Call for Nominations


IRIS and SSA are pleased to announce the 16th year of this jointly-sponsored annual national public lecture series in seismology. The selection committee seeks nominations from the seismological community for two lecturers for 2018. The goal of the program is to increase the general public's awareness of recent earthquake science discoveries, and the relevance of seismology to understanding our planet and to benefit society. A list of past speakers and lecture abstracts is available on the Distinguished Lectureship web page.

Scope

Each of the two lectures will be presented three to six times to general public audiences at science museums, universities or other public venues with target audiences of 200 or more. Lectures average approximately 45 minutes in length, with a typical program lasting about one hour including time for audience questions. The general scope of the research presented must have clear and acknowledged tie-ins to SSA and IRIS. Lecturers must be resident in the US during 2018.

Support

Venues will be arranged by IRIS and SSA. IRIS Education and Public Outreach and SSA will cover travel costs and assist with scheduling, logistics, and other related expenses. Lecturers will be honored by SSA and IRIS with an award and a $1000 honorarium. The lectures will be promoted by IRIS, SSA and the venues. When possible, IRIS and SSA outreach materials will be provided for dissemination by the lecturer and venue.

Ownership and Attribution

Lecture materials will be made available to IRIS and SSA for open distribution to members and other interested parties through the IRIS Education and Outreach and/or SSA websites and elsewhere.

Lectures will be prepared and presented in PowerPoint or a similar electronic medium. IRIS and/or SSA may choose to videotape some lectures subject to venue constraints. IRIS will assist in final preparation to ensure appropriate attributions and format.

Nominations

Nominations must include:

  • a lecture title
  • a short paragraph describing the lecture
  • a few sentences addressing why the topic would be of interest to general public audiences

Self-nominations are encouraged. Nominees with past experience successfully communicating seismological concepts to large public audiences are of interest.

The selection committee will vet the nominations and forward recommendations to the IRIS and SSA Boards of Directors for final approval in Spring 2017.

For full consideration, nominations must be submitted no later than Friday, February 10, 2017. Please email nominations to Perle Dorr with the subject line “Speaker Series Nomination". 

Questions should be addressed to:

Perle Dorr
IRIS Consortium
1200 New York Avenue NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 407-7004
lecture@iris.edu