SEGF Trustees realize that the decline in university-level economic geology students, the decline in graduate- level economic geology research programs, and the aging population of economic geologists employed in the mining industry is a serious threat to the vitality of the mining industry and the academic community. Responding to this issue, the Discovery Fund was created. Designed specifically to attract individual contributors who have enjoyed a successful career in economic geology and who want to provide significant financial support through the Foundation to encourage and develop a new generation of economic geologists. SEG is committed to "Advancing Science and Discovery." So it is appropriate that the Fund should be named in recognition of the ways many of us have benefited from a career in economic geology, whether it has been from the actual discovery of an ore deposit through exploration, from the discovery of new geologic and scientific concepts through academic or government-sponsored research, or from the discovery of economic value through exploration, mining, or investment in the minerals industry.