On 12 January Professor Haakon Fossen from the University of Bergen and specialist facilitator at the OilSim Geology Rocks! training courses was awarded The Nordic Geoscientist Award.

Professor Haakon Fossen (Photo: Sigurd Fossen) 

The award is presented every second year in connection with the Nordic Winter Meeting to a Nordic geoscientist who has, in the course of his/her career, been strongly involved in the society around us, as well as in specific fields in the geosciences.

All members of the Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Finnish geological societies can propose candidates and a jury, consisting of the leaders of each of the Nordic geological societies and the directors of each of the Nordic geological surveys, decide who gets the Award.

In presenting the award, the president of Iceland's Geological Society, Torsteinn Sæmundsson, explained that Professor Fossen has contributed significantly to science, from basic research to applied research, from the microscopic scale to plate tectonics and from the evolution of rift basins to the formation and breakdown of mountain ranges.

It was emphasized that Professor Fossen has a strong reputation in the scientific community, and has published 90 highly cited papers in international journals. Mr Sæmundsson also pointed out that the winner has written two textbooks in structural geology, and that he is known as a good lecturer and tutor for students.

The prize consists of a framed diploma and an engraved plate with a unique rock from the conference host country. In 2012 the engraved plate was columnar basalt from Iceland.

Professor Fossen is highly involved in the Geology Rocks! training course from Simprentis. In addition to facilitating the course, he has compiled the material in the course, which combines the engaging nature of OilSim with cutting edge geoscience.

The next Geology Rocks! training course will be in Stavanger, Norway, from 31 January to 2 February 2012 .

Read more:
Nordisk pris til norsk forsker from Geo365.no
About the Nordic Geoscientist Award at Iceland's Geological Society's web site

Picture from http://nyheter.uib.no/?modus=vis_nyhet&id=40363