USGS Collaborator Wins Prestigious SEPM Shepard Medal

By Barbara Lidz December 2008

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Above: Al Hine aboard the University of South Florida research vessel Suncoaster. [larger version]

Albert C. Hine, a close collaborator with scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office in St. Petersburg, Florida, from its inception in 1988, will receive the Francis P. Shepard Medal for Marine Geology at the 2009 Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) annual meeting in Denver. Hine is currently Associate Dean in the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida (USF) in St. Petersburg, where he began his career in 1979. He has worked extensively with USGS personnel for many years, including Gene Shinn (who will receive SEPM’s Twenhofel Medal at the 2009 meeting; see article, this issue), Bob Halley, Barbara Lidz, David Twichell, Kevin Cunningham, Jack Kindinger, Lisa Robbins, Terry Edgar, and Kim Yates.

Hine received his B.S. degree from Dartmouth, his M.S. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. For his dissertation he investigated modern carbonate-bank-margin sediment on the Bahama Banks with high-resolution seismic profiling. He studies coastlines, continental shelves, carbonate platforms, and coral reefs, using an array of geophysical tools. Hine has been heavily involved in the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) and served on the program’s Ocean History Panel, Site Survey Panel, and U.S. Science Advisory Committee; he was also selected to be a Joint Oceanographic Institutions/U.S. Science Advisory Committee Distinguished Lecturer for 2005-2006 (URL http://www.oceanleadership.org/usssp/dls/hine). Hine has had extensive seagoing experience on many research vessels, including as co-Chief Scientist on ODP Leg 182 to the Great Australian Bight and as a member of the scientific crew on Leg 194 to the Marion Plateau of northeastern Australia. He currently serves on the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) Fleet Improvement Committee.

Hine has written approximately 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He is major advisor to 11 Ph.D. and 22 M.S. candidates, including 2 from the USGS. His former graduate students are spread far, wide, and deep. In recent years, he has focused on deep-water coral reefs and drowned barrier islands; with Bob Halley and others, he mapped the deepest coral reef in the United States, off the southwest coast of Florida (see related Sound Waves articles, "USGS Scientists Use the SeaBOSS to Explore What Could Be the Deepest Coral Reef in the Continental United States" and "Coral Reef Off Florida Determined to be Deepest Known on U.S. Continental Shelf").

The Shepard Medal is given to persons who have a sustained record of outstanding research contributions in marine geology. Francis Parker Shepard (1897-1985), known as “The Father of Marine Geology,” is one of the field’s true heroes. Shepard began his career studying structural geology but is best known for his work on, and understanding of, submarine canyons. A short story of his life is available as a PDF file (76.4 KB) at URL http://gsahist.org/gsat/gt01dec20_21.pdf.

USGS Scientists Use the SeaBOSS to Explore What Could Be the Deepest Coral Reef in the Continental United States July 2003

Coral Reef Off Florida Determined to be Deepest Known on U.S. Continental Shelf February 2005

Francis P. Shepard Medal for Marine Geology Society for Sedimentary Geology

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December 2008

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in this issue:

cover story:
Tracking Sea Turtles

Alaskan Glaciers Retreating

Migratory Birds Carry Avian Influenza

Earth Science Day in Menlo Park, CA

Shinn Wins SEPM Twenhofel Medal

USGS Collaborator Wins SEPM Shepard Medal

New Chief Scientist for Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team

December 2008 Publications List