Doris M. Curtis

Doris Malkin Curtis (January 12, 1914 – May 26, 1991) was an American paleontologist, stratigrapher, and geologist. She became the first woman president of the Geological Society of America and made meaningful contributions to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Biography Doris Malkin Curtis was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 12, 1914. She married a Shell Oil Company engineer in 1950, the marriage ended in a divorce.

Curtis did not have biological children, but was involved and dedicated to her nieces and friends offspring. She was invested in their lives from their education, achievements, and general welfare; she impacted the people in her life leaving them with fond memories of her character, and not just her scientific achievements. She was hospitalized on the fourth of April, where she continued to work until her death on May 26, 1991 (age 77). She died from pneumonia in Houston at the M.D Anderson Cancer Research Institute – the same place where her career began. In August later that year, her life was celebrated by the staff of the Geological Society of America as her ashes were placed beneath the branches of a spruce tree, which represented the ever-growing impact she made on those she encountered. As a member of the Houston Geological Society, she participated in the construction of technical papers for the Gulf Coast Section. Marriage to a Shell engineer ended her employment at Shell, due to nepotism and gender discrimination; she then taught at University of Houston (1949-1951), then at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, (1951-1954), where she made contributions to the study of biofacies through her participation in the American Petroleum Institute Project 51. Curtis taught at University of Oklahoma from 1954-1959 and, in later years, at Rice University (1979-1991). In 1975, Curtis was transferred to work in Houston, TX, where she was served as staff geologist of Shell's International Ventures Group. Curtis retired from Shell in 1979 at the age of 65. Curtis gave presentations at various universities on geological topics. During her time as a geologist, she has produced and contributed to over 30 papers on numerous topics in the geological field. Curtis was an explorer in her field, working on the Gulf Coast for over 50 years. Her contributions to the geological field facilitated the development of new concepts for interpreting the geology of basins world-wide and the study of time-synchronous deltas, initiated in Louisiana, and published in the SEPM. Curtis was the first woman to contribute to "Distinguished Lecturer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists," in which she went on to become one of the two women who were "honorary members." Curtis served as the president of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists.

As reported in her obituary, the accomplishment she was most proud of was her opportunity to participate in the shipboard sedimentologist on two legs of the Deep Sea Drilling Project on the Glomar Challenger in Yokohama to Okinawa Japan from 1978 to 1979 and again in 1983. Doris felt that the experience was comparable to a "trip to the moon."

The Doris M. Curtis Outstanding Women in Science Award, is awarded to women who have made great impacts on geoscience through their PhD research.