Jill Stevens, founder and chairperson of TESEP has been awarded the prestigious American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Harrison Schmitt Award in recognition of outstanding accomplishment in Teacher Education outreach work.

The award, named after the first geologist-astronaut on the Moon, was initially given to Jill after her nomination by TESEP advisory board members. However, Jill advised AAPG that the founding members of the TESEP team were a talented, dedicated group of educators/geologists, who developed and presented the material at face-to-face workshops and were collectively the reason for the success of the workshop series. In response to Jill's representations the AAPG awards committee have re-conferred the award to "Jill Stevens and TESEP".

The award is to be presented in Los Angeles 22 April 2012 at the AAPG Awards Ceremony during the AAPG Conference and Jill plans to attend.

Jill says a team effort has seen TESEP advance (through 2007-2011) to it's current state of presenting "The Challenging Earth" series of 8 professional development workshops for teachers at 60 workshops with attendance by approx 700 teachers across 17 locations in Australia and this award is a fantastic acknowledgment of TESEP and the entire team who made it happen should be proud TESEP has been recognised in this way.

The TESEP Stage 1 team comprised an initial group of:

  Jill Stevens, Chairperson and founder who made TESEP what it is!
  Greg McNamara, Executive Officer, multiple workshop author and presenter
  Nola Shoring, ACT coordinator and presenter
  Janet Schwabe, (former) NQld coordinator
  Tracey Lawson, SQld coordinator, workshop author and presenter
  Philip Sansom, Tasmanian coordinator and presenter
  Brian Crowther, (former) NSW coordinator and presenter
  Len Altman, SA coordinator and presenter
  Trish van der Werff, Victorian coordinator
  Dale Simmons, (former) Victorian coordinator, workshop author and presenter

but even the initial group could not have achieved the results they have without the help of others:

Members of the advisory board from:

  The Australian Geoscience Council (AGC)
  The Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG)
  The Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG)
  The Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA)
  The Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM)
  Geoscience Australia (GA)
  The Geological Society of Australia (GSA)
  Minerals Council Australia (MCA)
  The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA)

We would also like to acknowledge Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA) CEO Peter Russo and the TESEP Support Team; draftsman Henryk Wojcik (Esso), office managers Joanna Pagan & Michelle Lollback (ASTA), and bookkeeper Merelyn Southwell-Keely (ASTA).

... and of course, Our Partners, big and small!