42 Integrating 20 Years of Scientific Drilling in the East African-Syrian Rift: A Session In Honor of Andrew Cohen, Part II

Continental drilling extending from the East African Rift into western Asia has yielded transformative discoveries, altering our understanding of paleoenvironments, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, and paleoanthropology. This session, in honor of Andrew Cohen, will celebrate these successes and define new directions.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
HBGCC, 214A

Session Wrap Up - Andy Cohen's Legacy

Paper number: 42-8
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:30 PM – 3:45 PM

Authors

  • Steven Goldstein Presenting Author
    Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York
  • Lisa Park Boush
    Univ. of Connecticut, Dept. of Earth Sciences, Storrs, CT
  • Michael McGlue
    University of Kentucky, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lexington, KY
  • Anders Noren
    University of Minnesota - CSD Facility, Minneapolis, MN

Abstract

With the untimely passing of our colleague and friend Andy Cohen earlier this year, the continental drilling community lost a major driving force for lake drilling. Andy leaves behind a legacy of great scientific and educational achievements. He was a leading advocate for the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, the US Continental Scientific Drilling Facility, and strongly supported a robust continental drilling program in the USA. He was a principal investigator on three major continental drilling projects. The Global Lake Drilling (GLAD) Project resulted in the development of the GLAD800 drilling rig (renamed the RV Kerry Kelts) used in several major projects around the globe. From the time Andy worked on his thesis at UC-Davis on Lake Turkana, his passion was the East African Rift. In the ICDP Lake Malawi Drilling Project and the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSDDP), Andy led groundbreaking research on the climatic and ecologic history of East Africa and its relation to human evolution, involving multidisciplinary teams of approximately a hundred scientists from eleven countries, and innumerable students. He was an enthusiastic supporter of many other paleoenvironment-hominin development projects in that region.

 

Andy’s scientific and educational achievements are highly recognized. He was coauthor of nearly 200 publications, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the American Geophysical Union. He was a recipient of the Israel C. Russell Award of the GSA’s Limnogeology Division, the Wilmot H. Bradley Medal of the International Limnogeology Association, and was Distinguished Lecturer of the GSA’s Continental Scientific Drilling Division. At the University of Arizona, he advised 25 PhD and masters students and taught and mentored hundreds of undergraduates. He was the recipient of U of A’s Distinguished Professor Award, given for “exemplary contributions to research, teaching, and mentoring", as well as its Creative Teaching Award. In 2024, he became a U of A Galileo Circle Fellow, comprised of “the College's most distinguished faculty".

 

The best geoscientists are global thinkers. Over the last few years, Andy has focused on synthesizing the continental and ocean drilling project data over the ~6000 km of the Afro-Syrian Rift from Turkey to southern Africa, generating an integrated global change history. The topics presented in this session, highlighting these projects, fittingly reflect Andy’s legacy.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-413523

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