NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – On Sept. 18, at the Bizzell Memorial Library on the University of Oklahoma campus, Kenneth Taylor, Ph.D., a distinguished professor emeritus at OU, will be honored for his lifetime contributions to the history of geology. Taylor will receive the prestigious Vladimir V. Tikhomirov Medal from the International Union of Geological Sciences, awarded only four times in the organization’s 63-year history.
The recognition highlights Taylor’s work and draws global attention to OU’s History of Science program, which features a History of Science Department in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at OU and a History of Science Collections in the University Libraries.
Taylor, a Harvard University alumnus, began his tenure at OU in 1967 and retired in 2006. In 2018, he donated his books and papers to a newly undertaken collecting initiative in the history of geology of the History of Science Collections. The history of geology has been a major focus of the History of Science Collections since its founding in 1949 with donations from Everette Lee DeGolyer, an alumnus of the OU School of Petroleum Engineering, now the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy.
In addition to Taylor’s donations, other recent acquisitions include the papers of British scholars Martin Rudwick and Hugh Torrens. “With this recognition, OU now holds the works of three out of the four recipients of the Tikhomirov Medal, a unique distinction that underscores the collections’ global significance,” said curator Kerry Magruder, Ph.D.
In addition to receiving the Tikhomirove Medal, Taylor was honored with OU’s Glenn C. Couch Scholars’ Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 1969 and held a C. B. Hudson Torchmark Presidential Professorship. He served on 41 graduate committees, directing 11 doctoral students. His research in early geology and geological maps produced foundational papers, Magruder says.
The International Union of Geological Sciences is one of the world’s largest scientific organizations, promoting international collaboration and advances in earth sciences with a focus on human welfare. Two scholars are visiting OU to participate in the award presentation: Ezio Vaccari, Ph.D., president of INHIGEO, the historical division of the IUGS and professor at the University of Insubria in Varese, Italy, will present the award to Taylor. Silvia Figueirôa, Ph.D., a professor at Unicamp University in São Paulo, Brazil, and a past president of INHIGEO, will join in honoring Taylor. Figueirôa is currently on the OU campus conducting research using the History of Science Collections.
Open to the public, the event will celebrate Taylor’s achievement and will include a three-part program on Sept. 18:
For more information about the event, email lib-hos@ou.edu or phone 405-325-2760.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
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