Gail Ashley

Sedimentology is the study of sediment and the process in which sediment is laid. Sediment often consists of sand, silt, and/or clay.

Gail Ashley, née Mowry, (born 29 January 1941) is an American sedimentologist. She is known for her detailed studies of the sediments laid down in the Olduvai Gorge, focused on the water supplies available to early humans. She participated in many projects over the years over multiple disciplines such as meteorology, oceanography, paleoanthropology, and archaeology. She has also held many prominent positions in the fields of sedimentology and geology, including the presidency of the Geological Society of America, the second woman to be so.

Early life and education

Ashley was born Gail Mowry in Leominster, Massachusetts, on January 29, 1941. Her interest in geology grew from a young age, thanks to the tutelage of her neighbor, a professor of geology. She earned her bachelor's degree in geology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1963. She earned her master's degree from the same institution in 1972. Ashley then moved to the University of British Columbia for her doctoral studies. She was awarded her Ph.D. in 1977 for work on sediment transport in tidal rivers.^[1]

Research career

In 1977, the year she earned her Ph.D., Ashley was hired at Rutgers University, where she remains a full professor.^[1] For the first 23 years she served as the sole female role model and mentor for the female students in the department, as the female students started to increase in number. She has also served as a role model for female geoscientists at the national and international level through her leadership as an editor of premier journals such as the Journal of Sedimentary Research, as President of high-profile scientific societies including SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), GSA (Geological Society of America) and AGI (American Geosciences Institute), and her leadership on NSF (National Science Foundation) and NRC (National Resources Canada) panels charting research directions in sedimentary geology.^[2] For most of her tenure, she was the only female professor in her department.^[3] She has also been an editor for several journals, including the Journal of Sedimentary Research (associate, 1987-1990 and 1992-1995; chief, 1996-2000), for which she was the first female editor, and the Geological Society of America Bulletin (associate, 1989-1995).^[1] She also did a public lecture on "The Paleoclimate Framework of Human Evolution, Lessons from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania" at Rutgers University and was given publicity by WISE (Women in Scientific Education) in 2014.^[4] She has published 91 scientific papers, presented 150 papers at meetings, and given 85 invited lectures over her 34-year career.^[3]

The Olduvai Gorge, where the majority of Gail Ashley's research and study took place.

Ashley's research career has focused on glaciation and paleoecology. Her studies of sediment in Olduvai Gorge have included studies of the springs that existed there contemporaneously with early hominids and their potential as water sources for them. Her work on glaciation has included studies of glacial stability in Antarctica, the Brooks Range, Ireland, and the northeastern United States. In that area of the U.S., she also examines the effects of prior glaciation on environmentally important marshes and wetlands. Her research in Antarctica came after being denied a research opportunity there twenty years prior because of her sex.^[1] In the 1970s female scientists did not have as many chances and/or opportunities in their careers as male scientists did. This could be due to social expectations that partially existed in those times.^[5]

Ashley currently has multiple ongoing projects. Her research in East Africa is conducted in the East African Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania where she focuses in the reconstruction of paleoenvironments and paleoclimate origins. Her interpretations of the paleoenvironment are based off information gathered from her studies of modern physical processes and deposits of glacial, fluvial, lacustrine, arid landscapes.^[6] Her other ongoing research projects include the scientific interpretation and history of ground water discharge in spring, seeps and wetland areas and lastly she has ongoing research in the Critical Zone concept to deep time application^[7]

Understanding Gail Ashley's actual science works she did and study for non science students in the following areas: Reconstruction of paleoenvironments is by definition investigations and or study which are undertaken to reconstruct the climate and vegetation of a specific time and place.^[8] Paleoclimatology is the study of climate changes over a period or on a scale of history of the earth. Sediment is a natural deposit of particles or materials e.g. rocks, soils, that are broken down because of natural causes e.g. erosion, weathering. These materials or particles are relocated by water/flood, wind or ice and or by gravitational forces.

There is a historical context in Gail Ashley's study and as well, being a female makes it more challenging to succeed overtime. Nevertheless, she rises to the occasion despite all obstacles. Author Glenn Dolphin in his book, had argued on Drawing the Lines of Controversy, that the dynamics of developing science of geology years ago certainly helped in giving context to it's history and prior to any systematic investigation of the surface of the earth and the processes that affect it, common knowledge through Europe was Biblically inspired. The earth had been created for humans, and humans had been there since the beginning and the earth was static and unchanging. People, for ages had been finding fossils, but not considering them remnants of prior living organisms, until Steno has his experience connecting the teeth of the great white shark with the tongue stones he and others had found in the mountains around Tuscany and elsewhere. This leads Steno to believe that the surface of the earth had changed and he set about developing the principles all which rely on the idea that the surface of the earth has changed since its formation; that the earth has a history^[9] I do suggest, that Gail Ashley is part of this dynamics of developing science. e.g. According to Geoscience world, Gail's study represents the first dated terrestrial record at the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary with sufficient resolution to link lake cycles (a climate proxy) to astronomic forcing and the geochronometry of the sequence was determined using the paleomagnetic record (top of subchron CN2, 1.785 Ma), the ages of two tuffs (Tuff IB and Tuff IF), and sedimentation rates. Insolation (W/m2) variations calculated as a function of eccentricity and precession predict five cycles of varying insolation (±10%) between 2.0 and 1.5 Ma. Rainfall would have increased by one-third between dry and wet portions of each ∼21,000 k.y. cycle. The wet-dry climate pendulum may have been a factor in the natural selection processes of hominin evolution and the first wave of hominin migrations out of Africa (1.8 Ma)^[10]

Honors and awards

Ashley has presided over several scientific groups in her career, and been very active in professional societies. From 1991-1992, she was the president of the Society of Economic and Petroleum Mineralogists and chaired the Northeast Section of the Geological Society of America. She has also been involved in the Association of Women Geoscientists and is known for her efforts on both a personal and professional level to bring more women into scientific fields. From 1998-1999, she presided over the GSA and was the second female president in its history. In 1998 she also began her tenure as vice president of the International Association of Sedimentologists, a position she held until 2002.^[1]

In 2012, Ashley was the recipient of the Geological Society of America's Laurence L. Sloss Award for her lifetime achievements.^[3]

Personal life

Gail has two children with her first husband, Stuart Ashley. Gail Ashley divorced from her first husband, Stuart, at the age of 41. ^[11] She re-married to her current husband, Jeremy Delaney.^[1]

References

External links

• Rutgers University profile

& "Geological Society of America - Honors & Awards". www.geosociety.org. 

• "Gail M. Ashley - Rutgers University :: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences". geology.rutgers.edu.