Honors college dean honored by international geochemists group

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Dr. Carla Koretsky, dean of Western Michigan University's Lee Honors College and longtime geosciences researcher, will be honored with the Geochemical Society's Distinguished Service Award when the group gathers for its annual meeting in Sacramento, California, in early June.

The award recognizes and documents outstanding service to the Geochemical Society, the largest international organization of professional geochemists.  The award can be made annually and is intended to honor service to the geochemical community or the Geochemical Society that greatly exceeds the normal expectations of voluntary service to the society.

Koretsky is being recognized for her long-running contributions as the 2001-08 co-editor of Geochemical News and for her service to the Goldschmidt Student Travel Grant program, which provides funding for students and scholars to travel to Geochemical Society events to present their research.

Koretsky has been the honors college dean for the past year. She came to WMU in 2000 and has been a faculty member in the environmental studies program as well as the geosciences department. Koretsky received the University's Emerging Scholar Award in 2007, was associate chair of the geosciences department in 2006, helped to establish a new interdisciplinary geochemistry major and was the geosciences graduate advisor for eight years--2004-12.

An active researcher, Koretsky focuses on aqueous geochemistry and biogeochemistry, seeking to integrate field, laboratory and modeling studies of mineral-water-biological interactions near the earth's surface.

She has been awarded more than $1.1 million in external grants from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and American Chemical Society. Those grants included a prestigious NSF Career Award.