2007 Awards -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 4/14/2008
Last Visited: 4/22/2008
Michael A. Gibson received his B.S. in Geology from the College of William and Mary in 1979, his M.S. in Geology from Auburn University in 1983.Upon completion of his M.S. Gibson served as an instructor at Auburn for the 1983 academic year.He then moved to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he obtained his Ph.D. in Geology in 1988.Since 1988 he has been on faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin, currently holding the rank of Full Professor.He is an Associate Curator for the Pink Palace Museum & Coon Creek Science Center.Gibson was the 2003 Higher Education Science Teacher of the Year and the 2006 Distinguished Educator of the year for the Tennessee Science Teachers Association.Gibson has served as Southeastern President of NAGT (2000-2003); Councilor-at-Large on the NAGT Executive Committee (2003-2006) and helped to pen the NAGT position statement on teaching evolution.He was Secretary (1989-1994) and President (1994-1996) of the Southeastern Section of the Paleontological Society and currently serves on the PS Executive Council as National Chair of Education.Additionally he has served as the Southeastern Section Education Coordinator (2003-2005) for GSA; and is the Geology Editor for the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science.Gibson was instrumental in Tennessee establishing the Cretaceous bivalve Pterotrigonia (Scabrotrigonia) thoracica as the Official State Fossil of Tennessee in 1998.He helped to found the Tennessee Earth Science Teachers (TEST) and serves as one of their higher education advisors.Gibson routinely runs development programs and field trips for Tennessee educators and serves on several State of Tennessee Department of Education committees, including the committee writing the state science standards.Gibson pioneered a dual credit geology course for high schools and teaches this course yearly Westview High School in Martin, TN.Gibson has published over 75 articles and is currently working on a book about Tennessee's state fossil.