Geological Society of America presents prestigious Distinguished Service Award to MaryAnn Malinconico

MaryAnn Love Malinconico, research associate in the Geology and Environmental Geosciences Department, received the 2026 Distinguished Service Award from the Geological Society of America during its recent annual conference, acknowledging her four decades of extraordinary service to the organization.

MaryAnn Malinconico

“MaryAnn brings rigor, sharp insight, humor, and real joy to service,” said Emily Orzechowski, director of geoscience policy and external relations for GSA. “GSA is stronger for everything she has given it.”

Specifically, she cited Malinconico’s work helping to shape GSA’s public policy work, including her service as chair (2025-26) of the Geology and Public Policy Committee, where she “brought deep institutional knowledge, sound judgment, and a clear sense of how to turn member expertise into action.

“Last year, at a consequential moment for geologists and the profession, she pushed forward the rapid development of GSA’s Position Statement on The Benefits of Professional Geologist Licensure, ensuring the Society could comprehensively weigh in during key legislative discussions,” Orzechowski said. “She has also been a generous mentor to me and other members of the committee, helping us understand the history of GSA’s policy work and the standards that come with it.”

Malinconico expressed her surprise and gratitude for the nomination and citation and thanked all GSA members and staff for their hard work and dedication. In her acceptance remarks, she noted the circuitous path that led her to a career in geology.

It started in sixth grade, she said, recalling two term papers she wrote, “President Franklin Roosevelt During World War II,” likely inspired by watching with her father the groundbreaking 1950s television documentary Victory at Sea about the U.S. Navy’s role in winning World War II, and the other, unsurprisingly, titled “Volcanoes and Earthquakes.”

“I did not build a papier mâché volcano at that time, but did two years later for the eighth grade science fair,” Malinconico said.

“Later, in fall 1969, as a freshman in college, right after the first moon landing, I was considering majoring in astronomy, Russian studies, or Asian studies; astronomy because I thought it might prepare me to boldly go where no woman had gone before. But I discovered astronomy was really physics in disguise,” she recalled.  “Much later I realized what I really wanted was planetary geology, but the topic was not a mainstream academic discipline at that time.”

She ended up majoring in history, with a minor in geology, at Smith College, and her first career was as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. Malinconico eventually changed her career path to geology, and, after earning her master’s degree at Dartmouth College, she applied in 1985 to serve on GSA’s Geology and Public Policy Committee (GPPC).

“It seemed like an ideal melding of my geoscience plus social science background,” she said.

In 1989, Malinconico joined Lafayette College, where her research has been focused on the temperature history of sedimentary rocks, basins and regions, using methods of coal and organic petrology, the microscopic study of plant matter in coal and sedimentary rocks that, with burial and heating, go through the rank stages from peat, lignite, bituminous, to anthracite. In 2002, Malinconico received a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from Columbia University.

She’s giving a talk on her research Nov. 6 at 12:30 p.m. in Van Wickle Hall’s auditorium, “Coal and Organic Petrology: Microscopic Methods to Study Sediment Temperature History and Paleoenvironment.” Her blog posts, some serious, some purely entertaining, provide more information on the subject.

Among her roles at GSA, Malinconico enhances Lafayette’s reputation and visibility through Congressional visits, informing legislators of the importance of federal science spending. She shares how government funding supports educational and research programs at institutions such as Lafayette. At GSA conferences, she enjoys supporting Lafayette students by attending their oral and poster presentations.

Malinconico is a true ambassador of geology, often described as an ecumenical field intersecting with many disciplines. She encourages students to consider geology as a career path.

“There is a growing shortage of geologists at a time when they’re needed, especially with exploration for rare Earth element (REE)-bearing minerals,” she said. “Everybody likes to learn about dinosaurs or earthquakes and volcanoes, and stuff like that, but sometimes geology is not taught in high school. But it’s a fascinating field, with so many areas to discover. Geology is interdisciplinary and relevant to many fields. It’s been a wonderful journey for me.”