ICS presents prestigious Digby McLaren Medal to Cincinnati's Carl Brett

The International Commission on Stratigraphy presents its second Digby McLaren Medal ever to professor of geology Carl Brett this week in Norway for a 'lifetime of notable contributions'

Brett's father designed and crafted this cabinet by hand as a metaphor for unlocking the mysteries of nature. Click here for more information.

At the 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo, Norway, August 6, University of Cincinnati Professor of Geology Carlton Brett will be presented the medal by the International Commission on Stratigraphy at a special meeting of the ICS. Brett is a key part of UC's nationally ranked paleontology program in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences.

The Digby McLaren Award recognizes a significant body of internationally important contributions to stratigraphy. The medal celebrates Digby Johns McLaren, a Canadian paleontologist, biostratigrapher and former president of the Geological Society of America, who died in 2004. When the medal was awarded for the first time in 2004, McLaren was able to attend the conference, although in failing health at the time. Carl Brett is only the second recipient of the medal.

Carl Brett's expertise in stratigraphy and paleoecology has helped to keep UC's paleontology program ranked in the top 10 in the country. Click here for more information.

"He was a well-known stratigrapher and an advocate of impact theory as a cause of the big extinctions," Brett recalls. "Very early on, I remember him arguing that some extinctions might have been caused by an asteroid impact and people didn't believe him. He was vindicated, of course."