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AEG Foundation
Norman R. Tilford Field Studies
Scholarship Fund

Grants from the Tilford Fund are intended to recognize and support deserving undergraduate or graduate geology students who are Student Members of the Association of Environmental & Engineering Geologists. The Tilford Fund does not support general and administrative (overhead) costs, technical or scientific consulting fees, or equipment purchase or maintenance costs of an educational institution employing or teaching individuals who receive grants from it.
 

Who was Norman R. TIlford?
Norman Tilford

Norman Ross Tilford, professor of geology at Texas A&M University and executive director of the Association of Engineering Geologists (AEG), died in an airplane accident on Nov. 13, 1997, while flying his Cessna 180 from College Station, Texas. Tilford, who was 62 years old, joined Texas A&M in 1985 with 30 years of international geology experience.

Professor Tilford was en route Nov. 13 to Van Horn, Texas, where he was meeting his students for a field trip. They reported him missing on Nov. 14. Intense searching by the Civil Air Patrol proved unsuccessful, but two hunters found the plane's wreckage on Dec. 13 in a densely wooded area about nine miles west of Johnson City, Texas. Tilford apparently died on impact.

"We have lost a good friend and colleague," says Christopher Mathewson, who is also a professor of geology at Texas A&M. "The engineering geology profession has lost a dedicated servant, Texas A&M University has lost a great teacher, and the Association of Engineering Geologists has lost an outstanding leader."

Tilford was born in Moscow, Kan., On Dec. 14, 1934. He started his engineering geology career working on foundation geology with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles. Subsequently, he worked in West Pakistan for the Harza Engineering Company. After he earned his master's degree in geology from Arizona State University in 1966, he worked for the Philadelphia Port Corp. and then joined Ebasco Services Inc. in 1969. Tilford was the company's head geologist when it constructed the Keban Dam in Turkey, one of the largest dams in the world at that time. Beginning in 1975, he served as Ebasco's chief geologist and traveled throughout the United States and the world as a consulting geologist.

As a Texas A&M professor, Tilford was known for his incorporation of real life situations into his classroom teaching and on field trips, Mathewson says. Tilford focused on active tectonics, water resources development, evaluation of geological hazards, and site selection studies.

He was a member of several associations and was particularly active in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the U.S. Committee on Large Dams, and AEG, serving as AEG's executive director since last June. AEG gave him its Floyd T. Johnston Service Award in 1992.
 

Past Awardees
  • 2020 – Angelina Han, Amherst College - Undergraduate
    2020 – Lauren Herbert, Colorado School of Mines - Masters
    2020 – Chad Neptune, California State University, Fresno - Masters
    2020 – Mariliis Eensalu, Northern Illinois University - Post-Graduate
  • 2019 – Lily Beth Bosworth
    2019 – Astrid Garcia
    2019 – Judith Avila
    2019 – Mathew Ellison
  • 2018 – Victor Farcia - Ph.D.
    2018 – Kimberly Moore - Graduate
    2018 – Emmy Geyman - Undergraduate
    2018 – Michael Ferraro - Undergraduate
  • 2017 – Johanna Eidmann - Graduate
    2017 – Erin Lathrop - Graduate
    2017 – Amy Plechacek - Undergraduate
    2017 – Anna Stanczyk - Undergraduate
  • 2016 – Matthew Thomas Dorsey - Graduate Masters
    2016 – Anna Katharina Schuh - Junior Undergraduate
    2016 – Emily Penolope Anderson-Merritt - Senior Undergraduate
  • 2014 – Julia Corbett Howe - Undergraduate
    2014 – Sebastian Dirringer - Masters
    2014 – Elizabeth Joy Olson - Ph.D.
  • 2013 – Shelby Jones - Undergraduate
    2013 – Michael McLain - Graduate-Masters
    2013 – Lauren Schaefer - Graduate-PhD
  • 2012 – Na Hyung (Stacey) Choi - Undergraduate 1st Place
    2012 – Jerome Varriale - Undergraduate 2nd Place
    2012 – Matthew Burnette - Graduate
  • 2011 – Jeremiah Bihl - Undergraduate
    2011 – Rebecca Springer - Undergraduate
    2011 – Evan Keffeler - Masters
    2011 – Christopher Madden - PhD
  • 2010 – Carrie Frisky - Undergraduate
    2010 – Nathaniel Swanson - Graduate-Masters
  • 2009 – Anna Perry - Undergraduate
    2009 – Anna Brody - Graduate-Masters
    2009 – Stephanie Watts - Graduate-PhD
  • 2008 – Tyler Benton - Undergraduate
    2008 – Theresa Poruznick - Graduate-Masters
  • 2007 – Shaina M. Forsyth - Undergraduate
    2007 – Scott Braunstein - Graduate-Masters
    2007 – Christopher Hein - Graduate-PhD
  • 2006 – Jennifer Wright - Undergraduate
    2006 – Nichole Wendlandt - Graduate-Masters
  • 2005 – Stephanie Mrozek - Undergraduate
    2005 – Conor Watkins - Graduate
  • 2004 – Shelley Zaragoza - Undergraduate
    2004 – Kathy Goetz Troost - Graduate
  • 2003 – Heidi Sieverding - Graduate
  • 2002 – Paul J. Moore - Undergraduate
    2002 – Paula Jo Lemonds - Graduate
  • 2001 – Bonnie E. Phillips - Undergraduate
    2001 – Cal A. Ruleman - Graduate
    2001 – Joseph Kula - Graduate-PhD

 

 

 

 
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