IUGS-60th Women in the early years: Vera Lafferty and the beginnings of Episodes

Susan Turner

doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2023/023003

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History of Geology

Episodes 2024; 47(1): 187-195

Published online March 1, 2024

https://doi.org/10.18814/epiiugs/2023/023003

IUGS-60^th Women in the early years: Vera Lafferty and the beginnings of Episodes

Susan Turner

Member of INHIGEO (Australia), Honorary Research Fellow Queensland Museum Geosciences, Hendra, QLD 4011, Australia

Correspondence to:E-mail: paleodeadfish@yahoo.com;sue.turner@qm.qld.gov.au

Received: October 31, 2022; Revised: February 5, 2023; Accepted: February 5, 2023

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is celebrating women and girls in geoscience and in celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the IUGS, we must applaud those women who have pioneered the work of the International Union of Geosciences. Between 1976 to 1980, Prof. Rudolf Trümpy (Switzerland) was President of the IUGS and William Watt Hutchison (Canada), its Secretary General and later President (1984–1987). Hutchison appointed Canadian Vera Lafferty to his Secretariat under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa. In this post, she created not only the flagship Episodes magazine but forged a new style across the IUGS platform. Vera Lafferty’s major contributions to the foundation and style of Episodes and the promotion of the IUGS are recognized.