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September 13, 2004
DRI's Dr. Glenn Berger to receive Dandini Medal of Science
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Reno, Nev. -- Desert Research Institute's highest annual recognition for scientific accomplishment by a research faculty member—the Alessandro Dandini Medal of Science—will be awarded to Dr. Glenn W. Berger tomorrow during a 4 p.m. ceremony at DRI's Reno campus.
One of the world's foremost scientists in luminescence dating, Berger's distinguished career began before his arrival at DRI in 1994. His international reputation for research in geological and environmental sciences has continued to gain momentum thanks to his work in geochronology, geoarcheology, paleoenvironmental records, applied environmental studies and optical dating.
A research professor in the Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Berger's career spans two distinct research areas. In the 1970s, he was one of a handful of pioneers in argon-argon geochronology, an absolute-time dating technique in which the total accumulation of stable types of argon from the radioactive decay of potassium is measured directly and precisely by mass spectrometry. This research led to the development of the now globally used method of Ar-Ar thermochronology for determining ancient thermal histories of basement rock.
Berger then turned his attention to luminescence geochronology in the 1980s by conducting seminal experiments in thermoluminescence dating on unheated sediments and volcanic ash. This is a method that measures the total accumulation in crystals of natural ionizing-radiation effects by counting photons of extremely dim light released in the laboratory as luminescence. The intensity of this light is directly related to the length of time a crystal has been buried. Therefore, the older the specimen, the greater the luminescence level.
The Dandini Medal was established in 1992 by Countess Angela Dandini to honor her late husband. An inventor, engineer, scientist, businessman, educator and visionary, Count Alessandro Dandini helped establish the Dandini Research Park in Reno, which is home to DRI's northern Nevada campus and Truckee Meadows Community College. Countess Dandini, the award's sponsor, who traditionally presented the minted medallion and $1,000 prize, died suddenly last October.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 500 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 85 percent of DRI's annual $33 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.