GER Early Career Award

This award was updated in 2023.

The Early Career Award is linked to the career stage associated with the formation and establishment of one's research area. To be eligible for this award, a nominee must be an active member of the NAGT-GER Division. Furthermore, it is an eligibility requirement that the nominee be in the last two years of a PhD program or in the first three years of a GER position/career.

Examples of outstanding contributions to GER, GER's applications to geoscience education, discipline-specific research contributions to geoscience education, and capacity building within the GER community commensurate with an early career stage may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Contributing to the development of GER as a scholarly field
  • Enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences
  • Presenting their research at GER and/or STEM education conferences
  • Publishing their research in GER and/or STEM education journals
  • Advocating for or raising awareness of the critical importance of GER in well-rounded geoscience departments and programs
  • Encouraging and supporting the integration of GER findings into geoscience teaching contexts, including translational scholarship that operationalizes ways in which GER findings can and should inform geoscience teaching in a variety of contexts (formal, informal, university-level, K-12, etc.)
  • Collaborating with PhD advisor/committee to publish doctoral research
  • Demonstrating post-PhD collaborations with mentors, peers, or others
  • Mentoring a diversity of young scholars (e.g., mentorship of high school students, undergraduate students, and/or peers)

The Early Career Award recipient will receive (1) a complimentary one-year membership to NAGT and its GER Division and (2) a complimentary ticket to the NAGT luncheon at GSA, where the awardee will be recognized. Awardees will also be profiled in the GER Division's newsletter and included in the NAGT newsletter.

The GER Division particularly encourages nominations of BIPOC scholars and individuals from other groups that have been historically marginalized in or excluded from the geosciences. Awardees will be selected by a committee composed of the NAGT-GER Division Past President and Vice President, and 2 division members. Nominations for this award will be kept under consideration for 3 years.

Nomination Process

Potential awardees can be identified through independent nominations and/or self-nominations. The GER Division particularly encourages nominations of BIPOC scholars and individuals from other groups that have been historically marginalized in or excluded from the geosciences. Nomination packages will be accepted through the online nomination form.

Nomination packets should be compiled into a single PDF document and must include:

  • A current CV with the publication record of the nominee
  • A nominee-prepared statement that addresses how the nominee (1) conceptualizes their GER program at their current career stage, (2) disseminates their GER, (3) applies their GER and/or other STEM education research to their course and curriculum development and their teaching, (4) benefits from collaborations, and (5) engages in GER capacity-building efforts,
  • Two letters of support from two different individuals (not the nominee) that discuss the nominee's scholarly contributions to the field of GER, application of GER to geoscience education (e.g., teaching), research collaborations, and GER capacity-building efforts. At least one letter must be from a current member of the GER Division.

Final awards decisions will be made by the NAGT-GER Awards Committee with input from external reviewers. The NAGT-GER Awards Committee comprises the Past President, Vice President, and Secretary. External reviewers will be active NAGT-GER Division members and GER scholars at the post-doctoral career stage or more advanced career stage. Nominations for this award will be kept under consideration for 3 years.

Early Career Award Nominations

Award Timeline

Nomination period opens: April 1

Nominations due: June 1

Award committee decision: by August 15

Past Awardees

2023 Early Career Award Winner: Laura Lukes

Dr. Laura Lukes is a geoscience education researcher and Assistant Professor in the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of British Columbia (Canada). Previously, Dr. Lukes was the Assistant Director for Teaching Excellence in the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University (USA). She completed her PhD at North Carolina State University, her M.Ed. at Ohio State University, and her M.S. at Virginia Tech. Her professional contributions range from research to community capacity building.Her paper, Creating a Community of Practice Around Geoscience Education Research: NAGT-GER, helped set a new course for GER community structure and support. Her concept diagram of GER as a nexus of geoscience, education, and social science has evolved to be a foundational visualization, aiding how we communicate about GER to those outside this interdisciplinary field. She had wide-ranging impact through leading faculty professional development initiatives at GMU. At UBC, she is lead PI for an initiative working to reimagine field-based science courses and study models of faculty and curricular development and instructor-Indigenous community partnerships. Dr. Lukes was the first president of NAGT GER Division and a NSF Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow. She is currently AGU Education Section President-Elect.

2022 Early Career Award Winners: Alison Jolley (AJ) and Katherine Ryker

Alison Jolley (AJ):

Lecturer Alison Jolley provides support for academic staff in all aspects of their teaching practice. She has a background in geoscience education and is passionate about experiential, immersive and residential learning in all disciplines. Jolley has a deep interest in undergraduate field experiences in geoscience and related disciplines. She is particularly passionate about the emotional and attitudinal impacts of field education (e.g., sense of belonging, sense of place, rest, wellbeing). She is also interested in the development of academic staff and their perceptions of educational research and support in a number of contexts.

Katherine Ryker:

Katherine Ryker is an assistant professor of geoscience education at the University of South Carolina and has served the NAGT Geoscience Education Research division as secretary (2014-2017), vice president, president, and past president (2017-2020). Her primary research interests revolve around interventions in introductory geoscience classes (especially labs) to improve cognitive and affective learning goals, and teaching professional development (faculty, graduate teaching assistants and pre- and in-service teachers). This includes exploring connections between reformed teaching practices, student learning, teaching beliefs, and the implementation of inquirybased geoscience labs. Other specific topics she is interested in include the use of augmented and virtual reality in geoscience programs and how teachers develop their beliefs and identities over time.