Awards

SOFIA in the News An October 21, 2001 article in the St. Petersburg Times talks about SOFIA at the USGS Open House in St. Petesburg, Florida. Read more.... The October 26, 2001 issue of Pinellas News also featured SOFIA. USGS Recognized for Work with High School Students The Palm Beach County School Board recognized the USGS for their efforts in working with the students of Forest Hill High School in West Palm Beach, Fla. Aaron Higer, South Florida Information Access (SOFIA) coordinator at WRD in Miami, accepted the award on behalf of the USGS. The USGS has helped install a state-of-the-art weather station on the Forest Hill campus that will help the students collect meteorological and groundwater data. The students of Forest Hill will be using these data to help forecast weather and will publish their findings in their school newspaper. The SOFIA web site will also be working with the school to help develop a similar site for their project. Further information will be available at http://sofia.usgs.gov/. Photos of new weather station: Sign in front of weather station. Weather station. Hydrology meter. (Click on images above for larger versions.) St. Petersburg Office Honored for Work in the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Project Present at the award presentation: (names do not match with photo) Briane Adams, Nick Aumen, Ronnie Best, Mike Callahan, Carl Goodwin, Russ Hall, Aaron Higer, Brenda Mccarty, Ben McPherson, Wanda Meeks, James Quick, Bruce Wardlaw, Chuck Holmes, and special guest John Vecchioli. If you are interested in purchasing one of Clyde Butcher's prints, you can find them at: http://www.clydebutcher.com/gallery.htm. On May 24th the St. Petersburg office was honored by Wanda Meeks (Regional Hydrologist) and Aaron Higer (Program Coordinator) for its participation in the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Project between 1993 and 2000. The award is a photograph of the Everglades commemorating the 50th anniversary of Everglades National Park, signed by the artist, Clyde Butcher. Mr. Butcher is known as the Ansel Adams of South Florida. The citation reads "Awarded to the Center for Coastal Geology for its leadership in the Florida Bay Program of the USGS South Florida Ecosystem Program". During the past seven years several people participated in the program including: Rita Byrd Nancy Dewitt Magan Frayer Bob Halley Mark Hansen Don Hickey Chuck Holmes Keith Ludwig Marci Marot Heather Mounts Ellen Prager Chris Reich Leanne Roulier Gene Shinn Rich Stumpf Yugong Tao Lance Thornton Kim Yates