SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION: LESSONS FROM HICK, TWIN BOYS WHO DISCOVERED GEOLOGY (Invited Presentation)

The first part of this presentation will tell the story of how the man to whom this session is dedicated ended up in geology. The two of us grew up on a small farm in rural South Dakota. Farm life teaches many useful life lessons, but two strike me as particularly important for success in the field of geology. The first is the constant need to solve a range of logistical problems made more common, in our case, by a father who was sometimes organizationally challenged. Second, many days spent wandering the landscape of the family farm gives one a deep connection to the earth and a sense of where you are on the land that is invaluable in field geology. After showing a series of embarrassing photos of this hick kid I will turn to the second topic: lessons Prof. Pavlis has taught us about scientific collaboration. The St. Elias Erosion and Tectonics (STEEP) project owes much of its success to two elements of Pavlis’ leadership. First, he promoted a strong collaborative spirit where all members of the group have a sense of ownership in the project. The lesson is that in a science project shared ownership of a well-defined problem is central to success. Science leadership is the exact opposite of the military approach with a top-down chain of command; it is all about team-work, not about following orders. Second, he made a conscious effort to have all scientists involved in the project spend some time in the field in Alaska. The bonding experience of time spent together in the field and learning to compromise in the sharing of the limiting resource for the work (a helicopter) created a strong team that was a key reason STEEP was so successful.