Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--The head of Mississippi State's geosciences department is a new Fellow of the Geological Society of America.
University alumnus and professor Darrel W. Schmitz will be recognized formally in October at the international professional organization's annual meeting in Portland, Ore.
Established in 1888, the society represents more than 22,000 earth scientists at all levels of expertise from academia, government, business, and industry in nearly 100 countries. GSA Fellows are selected on the basis of "distinguished contributions to the geosciences."
A member of the geosciences department since 1990 and its leader since 2004, Schmitz is active in GSA and other organizations.
He currently serves as vice president of the Mississippi State Board of Registered Professional Geologists and is a former president of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists and National Association of State Boards of Geology.
A Eupora native and 1980 MSU geology graduate, Schmitz also holds a master's degree from the University of Mississippi and doctorate from Texas A&M University.
His research interests include groundwater movement, natural water composition and hydrogeology related to environmental areas of hazardous and non-hazardous waste disposal, among other areas.
For more on the GSA and its Fellows recognition program, visit www.geosociety.org/.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.