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.
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