KU News Release

Two KU-edited geology journals ranked among top five scientific publications

LAWRENCE — Two sedimentary geology journals edited at the University of Kansas have been ranked in the top five of the 40 best scientific publications in the field. Additionally, faculty and students in the geology department have earned a host of awards in recent months.

The Journal of Citation Reports recently ranked Palaios and the Journal of Sedimentary Research fourth and fifth, respectively. The rankings are just the most recent recognition of KU’s work in geology, a field that has important real-world applications.

“We have been fortunate to receive quite a bit of acknowledgment of our stature in sedimentary geology in recent weeks,” said Robert Goldstein, chair of the geology department. “This is the field that trains the largest number of students how to find oil and gas resources for the nation and provides important research results on how life on Earth reacts to climate and environmental change. KU has a great reputation in this area. In years in which graduate programs are subdivided by the U.S. News and World Report ranking system, all of KU’s sedimentary geology programs appear in the top 10.”

Steve Hasiotis, associate professor of geology, and Edith Taylor, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, edit Palaios, which was ranked fourth. The journal emphasizes the impact of life on Earth’s history as recorded in the paleontological and sedimentological records. It disseminates scholarly works on biogeochemistry, ichnology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, paleoecology, paleoclimatology and paleoceanography. Hasiotis also won honorable mention for outstanding paper from the Society for Sedimentary Geology for a publication in the journal showing how tracks and trails of ancient soil-dwelling organisms provide a record of biodiversity during climate change.

Eugene Rankey, assistant professor of geology, co-edits the Journal of Sedimentary Research, which was ranked fifth by the Journal of Citation Reports. The journal publishes the most recent advances in basic research in the study of sediments. First published in 1931, it is the oldest earth science journal dedicated to sedimentology. Rankey was also recently awarded a distinguished lectureship by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the world’s largest professional society for geologists. He recently completed the first half of his lecture tour, in which he spoke on oceanographic controls of modern sediments and how they can be used to find oil and gas reservoirs.

While the journals received top five status, another KU record has long been recognized as one of the most important sedimentary geology publications in the world. The Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology is widely recognized as the most complete record available on invertebrate fossils. Paul Selden, the Gulf-Hedberg Distinguished Professor of Geology, edits the Treatise.

The honors haven’t been limited to faculty. Celina Suarez, a geology doctoral student from San Antonio, Texas, recently won the 2008 Most Outstanding Graduate Oral Presentation in the Geosciences from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science. Her research showed how the chemical composition of dinosaur bones and teeth can be used to reconstruct aspects of the climate that led to dinosaur evolution and extinction.

Suarez is the daughter of Arturo and Sylvia Suarez of San Antonio and a graduate of John Marshall High School in San Antonio. She earned a bachelor’s degree in 2003 from Trinity University, San Antonio, and a master’s degree in 2005 from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.

Goldstein said the honors are recognition of research that has a profound effect on society.

“The environmental implications of sedimentary geology and the evolution of organisms is very important, but there is also a very practical aspect to this field that everyone can relate to,” Goldstein said. “By aiding in the exploration of fossil fuels, it helps us heat our houses and fill up our gas tanks. Oil and gas is found in sedimentary rocks, so understanding the sedimentary rock characteristics at the end of a drill bit is of prime importance to us all.”

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