Robert Reilinger will receive the 2016 Paul G. Silver Award for Outstanding Scientific Service at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 12–16 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the fields of geodesy, seismology, or tectonophysics through mentoring of junior colleagues, leadership of community research initiatives, or other forms of unselfish collaboration in research.
Citation

Response
Thanks for your very generous citation, Tony. I’m incredibly flattered to receive this award, and grateful to have an opportunity to acknowledge some of those individuals who have contributed to my personal and professional development. Jack Oliver gave me a start in geophysics and advised me to “focus on doing good work—everything else will take care of itself.” Muawia Barazangi taught me the importance of careful observations and the intense dedication needed to be a scientist. Our geodynamic studies of the Africa-Arabia-Eurasia plate system would never have happened without Nafi Toksoz inviting me to work at MIT, and to collaborate with Bob King, Simon McClusky, and Aykut Barka (deceased), each as personally committed to this research as I have been for the past 30 years. Philippe Vernant and Mike Floyd have more recently carried much of the scientific “weight.” Carrying on from Aykut, Semih Ergintav has maintained a remarkable, perhaps unique, collaboration in Turkey motivated by ongoing earthquake hazards. Sergy Balassanian (deceased) and Arkady Karakanian (Armenia), Fakhraddin Kadirov and Samir Mammadov (Azerbaijan), Valentine Kotzev and Ivan Georgiev (Bulgaria), Mikhail Prilepin (Caucasus, Russia), Ali Tealeb and Salah Mamoud (Egypt), Rebecca Bendick and Shimelis Fiseha (Ethiopia), Ghebrebrhan Ogubazghi (Eritrea), Galaktion Hahubia, Giorgi Sokhadze, and Tea Godoladze (Georgia), Demitris Paradissis (Greece), Abdullah ArRajehi (KSA), Muawia Barazangi, Francisco (Paco) Gomez, Mohamad Daoud, Riyadh Ghazzi (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan), Driss Ben Sari and Abdelilah Tahayt (Morocco) all participated in early efforts to map deformation—their whole hearted cooperation and willingness to work across borders allowed our project to proceed. I hope all of our partners will take personal satisfaction from this award. UNAVCO has been, and remains, an invaluable resource, beginning with the engineers, James Stowell, Jim Normandeau, Dave Mencin, and Karl Faux among others, with continuing, uninterrupted support essential to our research.
—Robert Reilinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.