UT Dallas Geoscientist Stern to Help Lead International Field Conference in Egypt

University of Texas at Dallas geoscientist Dr. Robert J. Stern will help lead an international field conference in the Eastern Desert of Egypt Feb. 17-24. Nineteen scientists from eight countries are expected to participate in the conference, the aim of which is to advance the study of the region’s continental crust, known as the Arabian-Nubian Shield, and how it was formed 800 million to 500 million years ago.

Stern is the former head of the UT Dallas Geosciences Department and remains a professor in that department. His research interests include the evolution of the continental crust, the layer of rocks which forms the continents and the adjoining continental shelves, both in the Arabian-Nubian Shield and in the island arcs in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Stern and two scientists from Sweden will lead the trip. The field conference is financed in part by a grant from the Swedish International Development Agency for the Middle East and North Africa.

In addition to Stern, a UT Dallas geosciences doctoral student, Kamal Ali, will travel to Egypt for the conference.

A native of California, Stern earned a Ph.D. degree in earth sciences from the University of California at San Diego and a B.Sc. degree in geology from the University of California at Davis. During the 2005-06 academic year, Stern took a faculty development leave from his duties at UT Dallas to teach and conduct research at Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology.

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