The Pick and Gavel Dinner is held in Washington D.C. in February or March at the Cosmos Club, whose history is steeped in geology. One of its founders and first presidents was John Wesley Powell, 1881 -1894 USGS Director and explorer of the Grand Canyon, and its membership has included many renowned geologists.
The Award consists of a mounted mineral, fossil, or rock, with a symbol that includes a geologist's pick, a policy-maker's gavel, and the Capitol, where geologists and policy-makers work together to respond to the needs of the nation.
AASG will recognize one or two distinguished friends of geology each year, customarily a Senator, Representative, Presidential Appointee, or a particularly distinguished and broadly accomplished geologist.
Suggestions for potential recipients are welcomed by the AASG Awards Chair by the end of November the preceding year, while nominees subsequently considered by Executive will be those named by or suggestions endorsed by their home State Geologist.
Late in the calendar year, the recipient or recipients will be named by the AASG President, in consultation with AASG Executive, following a selection supported by Executive, the Awards Chair, and/or a review panel as required.
- 2022 Senator John Barrasso M.D., Wyoming
- 2021 Dr. Elizabeth Eide, National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine
- 2020 Senator Joe Manchin, West Virginia
- 2019 Representative Anthony Brown, Maryland
- 2018 Senator Maria Cantwell, Washington
- 2017 Congressman Doug Lamborn, Colorado
- 2016 Anne J. Castle
- 2015 Dr. Pat Leahy, AGI
- 2014 Congressman Ken Calvert, California
- 2013 Congresswoman Betty McCollum, Minnesota
- 2012 Senator Dianne Feinstein
- 2012 Congressman Jim Moran
- 2011 Congressman Hal Rogers, Kentucky
- 2010 Representative Rush Holt, New Jersey
- 2010 Senator Lisa Murkowski, Alaska
- 2009 No award presented
- 2008 Harrison H. Schmitt
- 2007 Dr. Frank Press
- 2007 Congressman Norm Dicks
- 2006 Congressman Ron Kind
- 2005 Marcus Milling
- 2004 Senator Harry Reid
- 2004 Senator Pete Domenici
- 2003 Senator Ted Stevens
- 2003 Jeff Bingaman
- 2002 Gale A. Norton Secretary of the Interior
- 2001 Representative Ralph Regula
- 2001 Senator Joseph I. Lieberman
- 2000 Representative Jim Gibbons
- 2000 Dr. Rita Colwell
- 1999 Senator Larry E. Craig
- 1999 General Richard L. Lawson
- 1999 Representative Nick J. Rahall II
- 1999 Representative Barbara Cubin