Citation by Brenda J. Buck
Dr. Timothy F. Lawton is an outstanding pioneer in the fields of sedimentary geology and tectonics. Tim has made significant and important contributions to foreland-basin sediment provenance, sandstone and conglomerate petrology, sedimentology and the tectonics of rift systems, salt tectonics, synorogenic sedimentation, structural accommodation zones, and dynamic subsidence systems. He is also an impressive geologic mapper, creating beautiful figures and maps.
Tim’s primary interest has been focused on understanding the complex tectonic evolution of the North American Cordillera, particularly relating the Mexican orogenic belt to the western United States. He has been instrumental in creating diverse research teams composed of national and international collaborations, including graduate students, early career scientists, and scientists from both academia and industry. His research is creative, provocative, exciting and highly cited, with well over 10,000 citations and an h-index currently of 55.
I believe Tim’s intellectual contributions speak for themselves, but not everyone may know about his incredible behind-the-scenes support of women and historically marginalized groups. Tim has made an amazing positive impact on our profession, including the lives of numerous individuals (mine included).
As an educator, Tim made his classes a safe place for learning, and he also modeled to the other students and faculty how people from diverse backgrounds should be treated: equally and with respect. His actions impacted those around him, increasing respectful inclusion and ethical behavior in the classroom and beyond. I remain inspired by his bravery in fighting against unjust, immoral and unethical practices in academia. Tim stood up for people when it counted, and he even risked his own career to do so.
Tim’s contributions transcend beyond the scope of his impressive intellectual achievements. Tim’s inclusive cohort-building is a uniquely admirable and important element of his fundamental contributions to geoscience. His legacy includes teaching new generations of scientists how to think critically, and perhaps even more importantly, he advocates and demonstrates how to behave ethically, morally, and justly towards one other, which is perhaps the most beautiful contribution that anyone can make in life. Tim is an excellent choice for the Sloss Award!
Response by Tim Lawton
I sincerely appreciate the citation by Brenda Buck, long-time colleague, collaborator, and sometimes foil, whom I have known since she was a student at New Mexico State. And I thank Kathleen Nicol for agreeing to read the citation here. In preparing my response, I stumbled across a bit of small-world society history: When Kathleen received the 2019 Rip Rapp Archeological Geology Award, Brenda provided her citation too.
I always enjoyed the rewards and challenges of scientific mentorship, but Brenda's comments emphasized something I hadn't fully appreciated until I read them. The sense of ethics and justice she describes likely derived simply from growing up in a family that valued empathy and acceptance. Equally important, I had formidable sisters who excelled as river guides in the 1970s and 80s, decades when the business was still very macho. Their success often played out in unreceptive circumstances and showed me that talent is commonly undervalued if its bearer is summarily prejudged. I thank my parents, both first-generation college graduates, for unfaltering support of my education, and my wife, Diana, for sharing and encouraging my passion for the past. Finally, I extend a huge thank you to Kate Giles for assembling the nomination package and to the Sloss Award committee for its evaluation of the submissions.
As with many preceding Sloss Award recipients, my primary reaction is astonishment upon joining this group of accomplished sedimentary geologists, some of them personal heroes. Having arrived at this milestone, I need to acknowledge my important mentors, necessarily an incomplete list. Casey Moore, not much older than I was and an early disciple of plate tectonics, seemed omniscient as my introductory geology professor. He inspired awe at a time when it was still common to nuance interpretation of some well-known California geologic phenomena by saying "some geologists think this deformation may have resulted from subduction of an oceanic plate beneath the continent." I attribute finally declaring a major to the arrival at the UC Santa Cruz faculty of Léo Laporte, who demonstrated how strong inference and irrepressible enthusiasm could be combined to make a career, and to then-department chair Bob Garrison for helping me to schedule three years' worth of degree requirements into my two remaining undergraduate years. Biogeographer Ray Collett encouraged my idiosyncratic writing and through his field course imparted an appreciation for the subtle complexity of natural systems.
A few years later, I was fortunate to meet Bill Dickinson at Stanford when he was experiencing a dazzling career renaissance. He showed me the power of sandstone petrography and provenance to interpret tectonics and sedimentation, and I have done my best to chase that connection ever since. My initial investigation of foreland basin provenance yielded not only expected results that were easy to explain but also puzzling observations that didn't seem to fit contemporary models. I later found that I had shelved key data rather than interpreting them. It was not until I revisited the earlier results with additional fieldwork and more thin sections that I was able to devise more nuanced and satisfying sediment-dispersal schemes. To this day, I find petrography to be an indispensable complement to the modern detrital mineral analytical techniques widely in use. The combined approaches have helped me move from pondering single basins to evaluating ideas about transcontinental and even intercontinental drainage systems. Looking forward, future opportunities for integrated sandstone analysis no doubt lie in their promise to resolve debates about mobile terrane reconstructions through geologic time.
I am deeply honored to receive this award named for Larry Sloss and I thank GSA and the Sedimentary Geology Division for providing me with a professional home.