GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Date: July 6, 2026
Social Time: 7:00 pm
Meeting Time: 7:30 pm
Location: In-Person at GMS and Virtual via Zoom (link is on the GMS calendar here)
Speaker: Dr. Morrigan Nolan
Topic: "Academic Paleontology and Geosciences – How I did it"

July’s speaker will be of special interest to our juniors and their parents. Summer’s long days and late wake up times (no school!) make it easier for families to attend our meetings. This month’s presentation is about graduate school in geology – which is very different from Medicine or Law (most graduate students in the sciences receive scholarships and a stipend). And – as all grad students know, if there is a presentation by a guest speaker, there will be cookies!

How does somebody become a paleontologist or a geoscientist? Dr. Morrigan Nolan will talk about her academic path – how she got into graduate school, how graduate school functions, what all graduate school entails, what projects she worked on, and will field questions about what an academic path in the field looks like. She will talk about the structure of graduate programs along with her own research program on Ediacaran-Cambrian paleobiogeochemistry and Triassic Trophic Ecology (fossil poop).

About our speaker: Dr. Nolan delivered the disappointing news that Brooksella is not a fossil in a recent GMS program. She is a GMS member, and was able to collect Brooksella (and “real” fossils) on GMS field trips. Dr. Nolan recently earned her PhD from Virginia Tech (2022) after a BS Geology and Chemistry (UGA, 2017). She is a Laboratory Manager at Virginia Tech Department of Forestry Resources and Environmental Conservation and Research Technician Cambridge University Department of Zoology.

I look forward to seeing you at the meeting (cookies!)

Sue Gorday
Vice President of Programs

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General meetings are usually on the first Monday of the month. If this date falls on a holiday, the general meeting will be on the SECOND Monday of the month. In September, the annual picnic and auction replaces the general meeting and is held on a Saturday.