CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GEOSCIENCES: GSA PRESIDENT BILL BROMERY, RENAISSANCE MAN
The Bromery Award for the Minorities is “given to any minority, preferably African Americans, who has made significant contributions to research in the geological sciences, and/or has been instrumental in opening the geoscience field to other minorities.” In this program, a minority is defined as a member of an ethnic group that is significantly underrepresented at advanced levels of (geo)science, i.e., African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Native Americans/American Indians, Alaskan Natives, and Native Pacific Islanders. Both the award recipients and the award’s establisher, Dr. Bromery, pose as significant resources to the geoscience community.
His commitment to diversity is well-known, as he and his wife have been active philanthropists, having funded several fellowships or awards for minorities, for example. However, this interest went beyond minority geoscientists to include major historical figures. Bromery was instrumental in securing a permanent home at University of Massachusetts, where he served as Chancellor, for the archival writings of the civil rights pioneer and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois.
However Bromery’s work in science, particularly geophysics, is less well known, although his aeromagnetic mapping in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1950’s seemed to pose as a standard reference, as have the USGS maps in New York in the 1960s and in a number of other states in following years. His philanthropy appears in science as well, such as in the Johns Hopkins Earth and Planetary Sciences' Bromery Lecture Series, where The Bromery Lectures -- weekly departmental seminars – are made possible through the R.W. Bromery Fund.