Carlson participating in field work on the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, Canada, Summer 2009.

Rick Carlson was elected vice-president of the Geochemical Society in December. Following his two-year term in this position, he will go on to serve as president of the society for two more, and past-president for the final two years. As vice president, Carlson will be responsible for appointing committee positions within the society and will serve on the Goldschmidt forum of the society’s annual Goldschmidt meeting. While president, Carlson will continue his participation with the Goldschmidt forum while also leading the society's Board of Directors and serving on the Joint Publications Committee and the Geochemical Fellows Selection Committee. As Past-President, Carlson will provide corporate memory to the organization.

Encompassing an international membership from such fields as organic geochemistry, high and low-temperature geochemistry, petrology, meteoritics, fluid-rock interaction, and isotope geochemistry, the Geochemical Society was founded to “encourage the application of chemistry to the solution of geological and cosmological problems.”