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| GEORGE DEMAS graduated
from Arundel High School near Annapolis, MD in 1976 and enrolled at the
University of Maryland in College Park where he received his B.S. in Soil
Science in 1980. He then continued his work at the University of Maryland
and completed his M.S. degree in soil genesis in 1982. During the 1980's
and 1990's, George began employment with the USDA-SCS as a soil scientist
and worked on a number of soil survey projects in areas which included
Dorchester, Charles, and Worcester Counties in Maryland, Sussex County,
DE, and Salem, Cumberland, and Cape May Counties in NJ. In 1994, George
was awarded support by the USDA-NRCS Graduate Studies Program to pursue
a Ph.D. in pedology, which he completed at the University of Maryland
in May 1998, with the writing of his thesis "Subaqueous Soils of Sinepuxent
Bay, MD." For this work, he recently received the Emil Truog Award which
each year is given to a single soils graduate student in the country for
"outstanding contributions to soil science as evidenced in the PhD dissertation."
George conceived the fundamental concept of subaqueous soils in the early 1990's when he published an "idea" paper in Soil Survey Horizons, and he continued to pursue it even while concerns about its legitimacy were expressed by other soil scientists. The potential value of George's ideas, however, were recognized by the NRCS when they awarded him support and academic leave under the Graduate Studies Program so that he could pursue his Ph.D. in pedology. George convincingly demonstrated that additions, losses, translocations and transformations occur within subaqueous sediment profiles, causing the formation of pedogenic soil horizons, and leading to the conclusion that these sediments are better understood to be subaqueous soils. Based upon these findings a proposal was adopted by the NRCS to modify the definition of soil as stated in Soil Taxonomy, in order to accommodate subaqueous soils in shallow water environments. George developed a protocol for producing detailed bathymetric maps which enabled him to conduct subaqueous terrain analysis and identify subaqueous landscape units that contained distinct suites of soils. In this way he demonstrated that the soil-landscape paradigm could be applied in a subaqueous environment. In demonstrating the applicability of the pedological paradigm to shallow water estuarine environments, George Demas effectively pushed soil science across a new frontier, and has thrust the principles of pedology into an entirely new realm. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, George continued his work with the USDA-NRCS and had been named Project Leader responsible for management and oversight of the soil survey update for the State of Delaware and for subaqueous soil mapping projects in the Mid-Atlantic Region. George was also a founding member of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Professional Soil Scientists (MAPSS) and provided unlimited energy, creativity, and humor during his tenure as president and newsletter editor. George Demas passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at his home on December 23, 1999. His parting left a gaping hole in the Maryland soil survey program, in subaqueous soils research, and in the hearts of many of us. Therefore, because of his outstanding contributions to soil science in Maryland, as well as to the larger profession of soil science, we were pleased to posthumously elect George P. Demas to be an honorary member of this society. |
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