UW geologist nets prestigious Packard Fellowship

Basil Tikoff, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics, is one of 24 U.S. scholars awarded a 1999 Packard Fellowship.

Chosen from among 100 scholars nominated by 50 of the nation’s top universities, Tikoff will receive an award of $625,000 over five years to further his research and other scholarly activities. The fellowship program, established by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, is intended to permit “exceptional young scientists the freedom to pursue natural science and engineering research.”

Tikoff joined the UW–Madison faculty in 1998. He is a structural geologist whose research interests lie in understanding aspects of plate tectonics, one of the most influential models in the Earth sciences and one that depicts the crust of the Earth as a series of semi-rigid, interconnected plates. His research is aimed at understanding some of the fundamental relationships between the planet’s crust and mantle.

A graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Minnesota, Tikoff was on the faculty at Rice University for one year before joining the UW–Madison faculty.