Fund:

Dr. Wilfred Elders Scholarship Endowed Fund

Department:

Earth & Planetary Sciences Dept D01055

Purpose:

Undergraduate Student Support

BACKGROUND
Dr. Sieh graduated from UC Riverside in 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in Geology and was the
recipient of the Gordon and Anna Watkins Award, a scholarship established by UCR’s first
Provost for academically excellent students with strong community service records. Dr. Sieh
came to the attention of then Chancellor Hinderaker because he had led a $25,000 NSF studentoriginated project to study the geology of the nearby San Jacinto fault, including the economic and sociological implications of any future large local earthquake produced by it. " I remember Prof. Elders coming to me one day with the RFP from the NSF and suggesting I put together a team of students to apply for a grant. We spent the summer of 1972 conducting that work. That work was the beginning of the geological sub discipline that I am credited with founding - paleo seismology. If it hadn’t been for Prof. Elders, that would not likely have been the path I
took. Dr. Elders took me under his wing and had a great attitude about science, very honest and
thoughtful."

Dr. Sieh’s Ph.D. – a paleoseismic examination of the San Andreas fault -- was a natural followon from his Elders-inspired work at UCR. He then spent three decades as a professor at Caltech
and then 12 years establishing the Earth Observatory of Singapore (which focuses on geohazards
in Southeast Asia) and its academic partner, the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang
Technological University Singapore.

From 1970 until his retirement, Dr. Elders directed a Geothermal Resources Program at UCR and supervised more than 30 graduate students. He also taught undergraduate classes in
petrology, geochemistry, structural geology, and field mapping. He has lectured at International
Geothermal Institutes in New Zealand, Japan and Iceland and served on the Board of Directors
of the Geothermal Resources Council and as Chairman of its Education Committee. From 1983-
1988 he was Chief Scientist of the Salton Sea Scientific Drilling Project, which drilled a 3.1 km
deep borehole that reached temperatures of 360°C and produced brines containing >25 wt% of
total dissolved solids. In 2000 he retired from fulltime laboratory science and teaching to
become the Co-chief Scientist of the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), a long term, International drilling project. The IDDP is aimed at bringing about the next phase in the
development of geothermal resources worldwide, by exploring for deep, supercritical,
geothermal fluids. The IDDP successfully drilled a 4.5 km deep supercritical well at the
Reykjanes Geothermal Field that had a bottom hole temperature of 625oC with fluid pressures
>40 bar, the world’s hottest geothermal well. The superheated steam produced from supercritical
systems has a power output an order of magnitude greater than that of a conventional geothermal
well producing subcritical steam.

See http://www.iddp.is and htpp://www.earthscience.ucr.edu.

General Purpose:
The expendable distributions from this fund hall be used to provide scholarship support for undergraduate students each year in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.


Criteria and Selection Process
The College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences’ Scholarship Committee will select undergraduate students who apply and meet all of the following criteria:
- They are pursuing a major within the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences;
- They are in good academic standing and demonstrate potential for community leadership or scientific discovery;
- They are low income/first generation; and
- They are members of one or more organizations like:
o Black Student Union
o oSTEM - Out in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics at UC Riverside
o Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science

Preference will be given to Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ students.
As the Endowment grows, the number and/or size of scholarships made each year may be increased. The minimum scholarship amount for any single student recipient will be $1,000. In years when there are no candidates who meet the criteria the unexpended distribution shall be added to the Fund principal.