Press

ALBANY, NY – New York State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS), a high honor bestowed upon a select group of geologists nationwide.

Fellows are recognized by their peers for meritorious efforts to advance science or its applications. Landing is one of only 10 fellows selected from the Geological Sciences. All of those elected will be recognized for their contributions to science and technology at the Fellows Forum during the annual AAAS meeting in Chicago on February 14.

This award follows another major award Landing received last May when he became the first U.S. citizen and first paleontologist to win the R.J.W. Douglas Medal. The medal is bestowed annually by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists to recognize scholars who make outstanding contributions to the understanding of the sedimentary geology of Canada.

In awarding the medal, the organization cited Landing’s work tracking the evolution of Earth’s oldest animals, particularly his data on their origins in eastern Newfoundland. The research led to definition of a time standard known as the Precambrian- Cambrian boundary, which has provided scientists with far more accurate chronology than they once had. Landing also has used evidence supplied by the rocks in New York and Canada to propose the likely production of major gas and oil deposits when ancient seas were very high.

The state paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the State Museum since 1981, Landing

has authored six books, 13 New York State Museum bulletins and has received more than a dozen competitive grants. Forty-seven of his 115 peer-reviewed papers are based on his field work in Canada and he has conducted field studies in all but three provinces and territories. That work has helped provide a more complete understanding of early life in New York.

Landing also has been honored by the New York State Assembly and was cited by the U.S. Paleontological Society for having the “1989 Best Paper” for work published on the origin of animals in the Journal of Paleontology and “1979 Best Paper” from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists for research on oolitic limestones published in the Journal of Sedimentary Petrology.

He has devoted five National Science Foundation grants, totaling about $1.5 million, to tracing the evolutionary origins of modern marine groups worldwide. He co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature about the Museum’s discovery of the Earth’s oldest tree fossil in the Catskill Mountains, providing an important glimpse of what the forests looked like 380 million years ago.

Landing also has worked on several Museum exhibitions including Ancient Life of New York, and worked to restore two Museum parks in Saratoga County – Lester Park and Stark’s Knob. He also has participated in numerous museum programs and events including annual lecture series, field trips and the

“James Campbell Memorial Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show and Sale.”

Landing became interested in Early Paleozoic rocks and fossils as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, devoting his doctoral thesis to Early Paleozoic Biostratigraphy based on field work along the St. Lawrence River, in southern New Brunswick and parts of western Newfoundland. He has conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, with the United States Geological Survey in Denver and at the University of Toronto.

The New York State Museum is a cultural program of the New York State Education Department. Founded in 1836, the museum has the longest continuously operating state natural history research and collection survey in the U.S. The State Museum is located on Madison Avenue in Albany. It is open daily from 9:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Further information can be obtained by calling (518) 474-5877 or visiting the museum website at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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