Education
As previously mentioned Maria Luisa Crawford first attended
Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she took a geology class as an option but realized she really enjoyed it, so she eventually switched her major to geology. In 1960, Crawford graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology from Bryn Mawr College. In 1960–1961, she did a
Fulbright Fellowship at the
University of Oslo in Norway before she began her graduate studies. While in Norway, she also worked for a museum and helped with mineralogical studies. Crawford enjoyed graduate school mostly because she was able to learn and focus on metamorphic petrology. In 1965 she received her doctorate from the
University of California, Berkeley. Shortly after, she became a geology professor at
Bryn Mawr College and in 1985–1992 and was named the William R. Kenan Jr. Eminent Professor of Geology. == Career ==
Career
In her 40 year long career, Maria Luisa Crawford wrote 68 separate articles in various journals. Her area of research changed several times throughout her career. However, the majority of Crawford's work centered around gaining an understanding of past geological processes related to Earth's crust. There was a period of time when Crawford became very interested in lunar petrology. She was involved in the study of several
Moon rocks that had been retrieved during the Apollo missions. By studying these rocks she was able to determine that sometime in the Moon's history large meteorites struck its surface causing flood lavas. The work she did with lunar rocks is still mentioned in lunar studies to this day. she became involved in a project that combined the expertise of geoscientists and computer scientists. This project was given the name GEON; its goal was to create a database that would combine geological data from several other unaffiliated databases. At the time, geologists had to search through several databases and then combine this information together in order to conduct their research. This project was thought to have the potential to entirely change how geoscientific research was done. Crawford was given a
National Science Foundation grant because of the role she played in the GEON project. Maria Crawford was also an environmental science and geology professor at
Bryn Mawr College for a period of time. She began with the college in 1965 when she was hired to be an assistant professor. It wasn't until 1979 that she earned a position as a full-time professor. While at
Bryn Mawr College she began research on the evolution of convergent continental margin orogenic belts; she retired from this position in 2006. She was also notably a member of the Association of Women Geoscientists during her time as a professor; as part of this association she received the Outstanding Educator Award. ==Awards and honors==
Works
• "A bimodal volcanic–plutonic system: the Zarembo Island extrusive suite and the Burnett Inlet intrusive complex". Lindline, Jennifer, Crawford, W.A. and Crawford, M.L., Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 41, p. 355-375. • "Using incongruent, equilibrium hydration reactions to model latter-stage crystallization in plutons: examples from the Bell Island tonalite, Alaska". Beard, J.S., Ragland, P.C., and Crawford, M.L. Journal of Geology, v. 113, 589–599. • "Reactive bulk assimilation: A model for crust-mantle mixing in silicic magmas". Beard, J.S., Ragland, P.C., and Crawford, M.L. Geology: v. 33, 681–684. • "105 million years of igneous activity, Wrangell, Alaska, to Prince Rupert, British Columbia". Crawford, M.L., Crawford, W.A. and Lindline, J. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 42, p. 1097-1116. • "Paleomagnetism of Late Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous plutons near Prince Rupert, British Columbia". Butler, R.F., Gehrels, G.E., Hart, W., Davidson, C. and Crawford, M.L. In: Haggart, J.W., Enkin, R.J., Monger, J.W.H., eds., Paleogeography of the North American Cordillera; evidence for and against large-scale displacements. Geological Association of Canada Special Paper, vol. 46, pp. 171–200, 2006 ==References==