Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release						February 9, 2000            

Lawrence University Geologist Awarded Fulbright Grant for Research in
Norway 


     APPLETON, WIS. -- A Lawrence University expert on mountain building
processes has been awarded a $21,000 grant  by the Fulbright Scholar
Program to conduct field research in Norway. 
     Marcia Bjornerud, associate professor of geology at Lawrence,
received one of three open awards available for study in Norway through
the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), which
administers the Fulbright Scholar Program for U.S. faculty and
professionals.  She was selected from research proposals submitted in
disciplines ranging from the sciences to the fine arts.         
     Established in 1946, the Fulbright Scholar Program provides grants
for teaching and research positions in more than 120 countries
worldwide.  Fulbright grants are generally awarded for six month
periods, but Bjornerud will extend her stay to a full year beginning in
July to take advantage of Norway's long summer days to carry out field
work. 
     A specialist in tectonics and structural geology, Bjornerud will
investigate the role fluids play in fault zones at different crustal
levels and their impact on the processes that occur in seismic events ‹
earthquakes ‹ and the formation of mountains. She will work in
cooperation with scientists from the Geological Institute at the
University of Oslo on exposed rock complexes on the island of Holsnøy in
western Norway.  Additional research Bjornerud conducted
previously on fault systems in Spitsbergen, part of a small archipelago
inside the Arctic Circle east of Greenland, will be incorporated into
new map sheets of the area, which she will help compile and edit at the
Norwegian Polar Institute.  
     "This is an exciting research opportunity for me personally and
ultimately for Lawrence students," said Bjornerud, who has made five
previous field research trips to Norway, the most recent in 1998.
"Norway is a geological haven, with stunning, nearly unvegetated
exposures of diverse rock types.  Many of these rocks types are
extremely rare, which this makes them scientifically significant.  This
grant will help me complete some long-term projects I've been involved
with and establish some new research initiatives that will build upon my
previous research experience." 
     Bjornerud is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of
Geoscience Education and the author of the book "Guide to the Blue
Planet." She also is a contributing author to a book of essays entitled, "The
Earth Around Us," that is scheduled to be released next month.  She
wrote the essay, "Natural science, natural resources and the nature of
Nature," an examination of how scientific views of the Earth are
influenced by the politics and cultural norms of the times in which they
developed.
     In 1996, the National Science Foundation named Bjornerud one of its
"distinguished scholars" for its Visiting Professorships for Women
Program, resulting in an appointment as an adjunct research professor in
the Department of Geological Engineering and Sciences at Michigan
Technological University.  
     A member of the Lawrence faculty since 1995, she earned her
bachelor's degree in geophysics at the University of Minnesota and her
Ph.D. in geology at the University of Wisconsin.