The Canadian Geophysical Union
The Canadian Geophysical Union is a national geophysical organization active in bringing together and promoting all of the geophysical sciences. The Union provides a focus for geophysicists in Canadian universities, government agencies and industry who study the composition and processes of the whole earth including hydrology, space studies and geodesy. The CGU was officially incorporated under the Canadian Corporation Act on April 22, 1994. The CGU is, and has been since its inception, an entirely volunteer organization. The membership of the Union is at the 500 level.
One of the most important activities that contributes to the good health of the Union is the success of our annual scientific meeting, once again held in Banff, Alberta, May 22-26, 1995. Over 200 papers were presented in twenty-six technical sessions. In addition to the regular sessions, there were several new sessions such as Induced Seismicity, Environmental Physics and Groundwater Hydrology. The Hydrology section organized a Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) workshop coincident with the annual meeting. The 1996 meeting (May 5-9) will also be held in Banff and will include three and one-half days of scientific sessions. As well, a half day field trip to Canmore/Kananaskis is scheduled for the mid-point of the meeting.
At the Banff meeting, the J. Tuzo Wilson Medal for 1995 was awarded to Charlotte E. Keen of the Geological Survey of Canada, for her many outstanding contributions to geophysics in Canada, particularly in marine studies of earth structure and geotectonic processes. The Wilson Medal is the CGU's premier award honouring Canadian geophysicists. The program of best student paper awards at the annual scientific meetings continues to be a very useful means of stimulating participation in CGU activities by our graduate students. The CGU's best student paper award went to Shawn Marshall of the University of British Columbia for "Geologic and Topographic Characterization of the Laurentide Ice Sheet Bed." S. Winardhi from the University of Western Ontario won the Chevron award for "Seismic Structure of the Grenville Front Tectonic Zone: Results from the 1992 Lithoprobe Abitibi-Grenville Seismic Refraction Experiment". Pascale Louis from Ecole Polytechnique won the award in the Shell poster competition for "Magnetotelluric Investigations Along the Mont Laurier Transect, Eastern Grenville". John Gibson of the University of Waterloo was selected for the best student paper in Hydrology for "Validity of an Isotopic Method for Estimation of Lake Evaporation."
As the CGU Distinguished Lecturer for 1995, Dr. Rosemary Knight from the University of British Columbia offered two lectures, entitled "The Effect of Pore-Scale Fluid Distribution on Electrical and Elastic Properties" and "The Use of Ground Penetrating Radar for Hydrogeologic Applications". These lecture tours bring some of Canada's outstanding geophysicists to universities and other institutions across Canada.
The CGU now has primary responsibility for selecting the Canadian delegates to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the affiliated associations (IASPEI, IAPSO, IAVCEI, IAGA, IAHS, IAMAS), with input from several sister societies. The present Canadian delegate to the IUGG and chairman of the Canadian National Committee for IUGG is Richard Langley, University of New Brunswick.
The CGU newsletter Elements keeps members informed of activities and developments in the CGU and in the Canadian Geophysical community. It is now edited by Gary Jarvis at York University. The Union wants to encourage the widest possible number of contributions to Elements from groups such as space physicists, environmentalists, global change researchers, etc. to make the newsletter interesting to geophysical scientists of every stripe, not just to CGU members. Contributions from CGU Sister Societies will also be actively encouraged.
R.D. Kurtz