President Bill Clinton recently named Earth Sciences Professor Joel Blum as a 1993 Presidential Faculty Fellow for his research in geochemistry.
Blum will receive a five-year, $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. He will also advise the government on current science and education issues several times a year as a "future leader in science and academics."
Blum, 33, is the third Earth Sciences Department member to win a major award within the past three years.
Earth Sciences Professor Naomi Oreske recently won the Young Investigator Award and Earth Sciences Chair C. Page Chamberlain received the Presidential Young Investigator award three years ago.
"It's really special that three of us have received awards," Blum said. "It puts us on the map internationally. We are the only department in the country to have three winners."
Blum won the 1993 Young Investigator Award two weeks ago, but chose to decline it when he received the more prestigious Faculty Fellow award.
Dr. Sonia Ortegam, representative of the Division of Graduate Education and Research Development of the National Science Foundation, said recipients are chosen based on their fulfillment of three criteria: competence, leadership as an educator and researcher and potential impact on the nominating institution.
The award is presented to faculty members at the beginning of their careers for excellence in research and teaching.
As a part of the award, Blum traveled to Washington where President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore honored Blum and the other 29 winners.
Blum said he plans to use his funding to purchase more equipment for greater experimental possibilities and to bring more undergraduates into his research.
In his sessions in Washington, Blum said he said he hopes to address such topics as the public's scientific literacy and increased basic research funding.
Blum attributes his achievement to his variety of interests.
"One of my strengths is the fact that I work on a wide range of problems in geochemistry," Blum said.
Blum's work includes research on exploring geochemical processes in the environment.
His study of the environmental factors that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs has received international attention.
He also pursues topics such as the weathering of rocks, the effect of climate change on soil fertility and the effect of acid rain on the nutrient content of soil.
In 1992, Blum was named a Sloan Research Fellow by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for excellence in physics and chemistry.
Blum is presently an editorial board member of the scientific journal Geology and has been published in the highly-respected journals Nature and Science.
Blum currently teaches Environmental Geology, Introduction to Geochemistry and Petrology. In the spring, he will team-teach a course on isotopic tracers in the environment.
Blum, who joined the Dartmouth staff in 1990, earned his Ph.D. in geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in geological science from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and Case Western Reserve University.
