The CSS Memorial Fund Committee (Jim Cappa, Eric Nelson, Bruce Bryant, Greg Holden, and Don Sweetkind) met on April 28, 2004 to evaluate proposals for the Tweto, Oriel, Eckel, Snyder, and Pierce Heart Mountain funds. We received 24 proposals (five fewer than last year) from 18 universities throughout the United States.

Twelve awards totaling $9,425 were made from the five funds. $2,800 total, which supported three proposals, was awarded from the Tweto Fund for research in the Rocky Mountains. The Oriel Fund for research in the central and northern Rocky Mountains awarded $2,000 total to three proposals. The Eckel Fund for research in engineering geology awarded $625 to support one partial proposal. The Snyder Fund for research on Precambrian geology of the Rocky Mountains awarded $1,000 to one proposals. A total of $3,000 was awarded from the Pierce Heart Mountain Fund, under new guidelines established by the Pierce family last year, for research on the Heart Mountain fault and in areas not covered well by the other funds. This year a proposal for work on the Heart Mountain fault and three other proposals were funded.

During the past 21 years (including this year), the Society has helped support the graduate research of 165 students, awarding a total of $125,657 (an average of nearly $750 per grant). This achievement is extraordinary for an organization of our size and exemplifies the commitment of its members to promote high-quality research in the earth sciences. It was an honor and pleasure to serve as Memorial Fund Chair this year and I want to extend a “thank you” to all the Memorial Fund donors that have made these grants possible. The 2004 recipients of CSS memorial funds awards are as follows:

• Matthew Bourke, UCLA, Sedimentary and tectonic analysis of the Kishenehn Basin, northwest Montana – an analogue for Tertiary extensional basins of the western U.S.
• Charity Hall, University of Northern Arizona, Postglacial vegetation and fire history of Hermit Lake, northern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado.
• Michael Meredith, University of Wyoming, Archean crustal development in the Tin Cup Mountain area, Granite Mountains, Wyoming, a product of plate tectonics.
• Timothy McIntyre, Colorado School of Mines, Alteration and mineralization of the Wingate sandstone, Paradox Basin, Utah-Colorado.
• Khitam Alzughoul, Colorado School of Mines, Mineralization in the Whitehorn Stock area, NE Salida, Colorado.
• Jessica Moore Ali-Adeeb, University of Utah, Three-dimensional fluvial architecture and reservoir modeling of the Green River Formation, Eocene.
• Peter J. Schmitz, University of Wyoming, Emplacement style of Late Archean Louis Lake batholith, southern Wyoming Province.
• Daniel Hembre, University of Kansas, Using modern burrowing organisms to determine paleoenvironmental , paleoclimatic, and paleoecological significance of continental ichnofossils in the Eocene-Oligocene White River Formation, Logan County, Colorado.
• Joseph J. Beer, University of Minnesota at Duluth, Sequence stratigraphy of fluvial and lacustrine deposits in the lower part of the Chinle Formation, central Utah: Paleoclimatic and paleoecologic implications.
• Nathaniel Gilbertson, Colorado School of Mines, 3-D geologic modeling and fracture interpretation of the Tensleep Sandstone, Alcova Anticline, Wyoming.
• Scott Salamoff, Colorado State University, Integration of fold modes with fracture history in Laramide anticlinal oil traps: an example from the Elk Basin and surrounding areas, Wyoming.
• Joshua DeFrates, Illinois State University, Paleomagnetic analysis of basaltic dikes at Cathedral Cliffs: a test of the continuous allochthon model for Heart Mountain faulting.