Dillon native receives geological fellowship

By The Montana Standard Staff - 10/19/2008

DILLON — Brenda Buck, a Dillon native and 1986 graduate of Drummond High School, was named a Fellow of the Geological Society of America at a ceremony at the society's annual meeting in Houston on Oct. 4.

The GSA Fellowship is bestowed on the best of the profession once each year.

Buck is one 65 scientists and educators elected as a 2008 fellow. The worldwide society has more than 21,000 members from 85 countries.

Buck is said to be one of the world's foremost experts on arid soils.

Tim Lawton of New Mexico State University nominated her.

"Brenda is a pioneer, both as a woman in a male-dominated field and in her studies bridging geology and soil science to solve real environ-mental problems," Lawton said. "She's both tough and rigorous in her science while equally welcoming and encouraging of new ideas, qualities that she no doubt acquired growing up on a Montana ranch." Last year, Buck was given the top award of the Soil Science Society of America, which met jointly with GSA earlier this month in Houston.

She's one of the few scientists to be recognized in this way by both societies.

Buck is an associate professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Montana Western, Dillon.

She is the daughter of Jim and Nel Buck of Hall. She received a bachelor of science degree in geology from the University of Notre Dame in 1990. She received, from New Mexico State University, a master's in geology in 1992 and a doctorate in agronomy in 1996.