On October 15, it was announced at the 135th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA) in Pittsburgh, USA, that Professor Dai Shifeng from our university has been honored with the Gilbert H. Cady Award by the Geological Society of America. The Gilbert H. Cady Award is an accolade in energy geology established by the Geological Society of America to recognize scientists who have made exceptional contributions to the field of coal geology. This prestigious award is granted to no more than one scientist each year. Over the past nearly 50 years, a total of 42 outstanding geological scientists have received this honor. Professor Dai Shifeng is the 43rd recipient since the establishment of the award and the first Chinese awardee.

During the award ceremony, Carmala N. Garzione, the incoming president of the Geological Society of America and Dean of the College of Science at the University of Arizona, announced that this year's Gilbert H. Cady Award would be presented to Dai Shifeng from China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing. Denise Hills from the Geological Survey of Alabama presented the medal to Professor Dai Shifeng. Renowned coal geologist Professor James C. Hower from the University of Kentucky introduced Dai Shifeng's research achievements, stating "He has established an organizational structure for the geochemistry and mineralogy of coal research. The concept introduced by him and Seridin in 2012 on the innovative results of rare earth elements in coal has become a fundamental aspect of any research on rare earth element enrichment in coal today. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Gilbert H. Cady Award, the Geological Society of America believes that Dai Shifeng has risen to the forefront among our peers."

Dai Shifeng is a recipient of the National Distinguished Young Scientist Foundation and serves as the chief scientist for both the National 973 Program and the National Key R&D Program. He has received four first prizes in natural science at the provincial and ministerial levels (all ranked first), the John Castano Award, the highest award from the Society of Organic Petrology (2021). Dai Shifeng has also been recognized as a Highly Cited Scientist by Clarivate Analytics (2019-2022) and as a Highly Cited Scholar by Elsevier (2014-2022). He serves as the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Coal Geology (since 2007) and has been the Chairman of the Society of Organic Petrology (2015-2017).