The 2007 Joseph A. Cushman Award

Louisette Zaninetti

In recognition of her teaching ability, research activity and extensive publication record on the Foraminifera Professor Louisette Zaninetti received the Joseph A. Cushman Award for Excellence in Foraminiferal Research on October 30, 2007 at the Cushman Reception of the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Professor Louisette Zaninetti spent most of her career at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her research is both original and of excellent quality. She has also had an impressive career as a teacher, supervisor and administrator. Many students owe her a great deal. By the end of 2002 she had published over 210 peer-reviewed papers and in 2003 the University of Geneva recognized her achievements and status by appointing her Vice-Rector of the University.

Full text of the citation by Roberto Rettori and Rossana Martini can be found in the Journal of Foraminiferal Research, January 2008, v. 38, no. 1, p. 1-2

Dr. Zaninetti's comments on receiving the award:

" Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear colleagues and friends,

In their Cushman Award citation, Rossana Martini and Roberto Rettori, very kindly underlined all what I am supposed to have done professionally during the past 40 years at the University of Geneva.

What they said is probably true, a lot has been done. But, such a colossal amount of work could never have been accomplished during a single life, by a single and normal human being. Me !

One thing I have to say, I have been very lucky in my scientific and academic career.

Lucky because, in 1964, I met a new professor in Geneva, a scientist of outstanding status, Paul Bronnimann, Cushman Award 1984. At that time, after many years of applied micropaleontology in the Cretaceous and Tertiary, Paul Bronnimann was very much concerned about the newest fashion field of research, the so called great desert, no-reef, no-fossil period, the Triassic. And he said to me: This is not possible, life did not stop that way, and for so long, after the Permian-Triassic crisis. There should be something in the Triassic!

And then Paul added:
Go ahead and investigate what the situation is!

So I started my Ph.D. thesis under his supervision.

But as a young student with no experience at all in scientific research, I did not really understand what the challenge was.

For many months, I did not find anything. I will never forget this difficult period of my life.

So, more and more hard work was necessary, field and technical work, and finally foraminifera came out of my thin sections from Triassic alpine limestones and dolomites. This was a fair repayment for all my efforts. It was also a great satisfaction to discover new microfossils, as very little had been described before. As always, Paul Bronnimann was right.

Lucky also because at that time, this was during the late 60s-early 70s, I happened to know several recipients of the Cushman Award: Ruth Todd, at the Smithsonian Institution, she was always remembering her mentor, Joseph A. Cushman in Sharon; I also met Fred Phleger, Frances Parker, Helen Tappan, Alfred Loeblich, Esteban Boltovkoy in Buenos Aires, and many others. When I checked the list in the Cushman Foundation website, I realised the great chance I had to have met almost all these colleagues, and suddenly I woke up from my dream and thought: my God, I am really getting old. Never mind. I am so proud today to be put on the list, together with so many high-status scientists.

Lucky also, as I already emphasized, because I have not been alone to do the work on Upper Palaeozoic and Triassic foraminifera, for a great part of my life. Of course not. So I would like to call attention to my numerous colleagues, collaborators, former students and students in Switzerland, the European Union, the United States, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam, China, Japan, who joined me and helped for many years in doing this type of research. I would like to share with them the great honour of being here today, and the prestigious Award dedicated to me, but in fact belonging to them, also.

Lucky as well to have been able to work with my former student and today associate colleague and friend Jan Pawlowski, who came to Geneva from Poland about 20 years ago, and developed at the university a new field of interest in foraminiferal research, the Molecular Systematics of foraminifera. This very attractive part of the knowledge is based on advanced studies in genetics, in other words, based on what DNA can tell about the early history of life, and about the phylogeny and evolution of all organisms, among them foraminifera.

Lucky finally for the 35 years of financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

October 30th 2007

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