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Moose resident Dr. Robert Smith has received this year’s natural resource research award from the National Park Service.

Smith, a University of Utah geophysics professor, began working in Yellowstone as a fisheries technician in 1956 and, after receiving his doctorate in the 1960s, has since organized many of the major research efforts on the Yellowstone Caldera and the Teton Fault.

Smith is one of the founders of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, and his discoveries have shown that the Yellowstone Caldera is rising by several centimeters per year and that the Jackson Hole valley floor is rising relative to the Tetons.

Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott presented Smith with the award at an employee gathering Thursday in Moose.

“Dr. Smith demonstrates outstanding leadership in his field and supplies invaluable scientific information to help our staff and visitors understand the physical forces that influence the landscapes in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and beyond,” Scott said in a statement earlier this week. “We appreciate his unfailing dedication and commitment to America’s national parks, and are especially grateful for the wealth of knowledge that he provides in support of the safety of visitors and residents throughout the intermountain region.”

Smith said the Park Service has supported his efforts, including the installation of a network of 26 seismographs in Yellowstone. Respecting the resource, he said, is part of the challenge of working in a national park.

“We’ve worked exceedingly hard to be sensitive and not do things to destroy or affect areas,” he said.

“I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of people,” Smith said, adding that 25 of his graduate students have worked on Yellowstone and Teton research projects. “As a whole, it’s been a great educational experience as well as a great personal experience.”

Grand Teton spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said Smith has not only provided valuable scientific and safety information for the parks but also has volunteered his time to help teach park staff about the geophysics of the region. Further, Smith is a member of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation board.

“You can’t help but get exited,” she said. “His enthusiasm is contagious.”

“All of us fondly think of him as being the grand marshal of dynamic forces in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,” Skaggs said. “Because of geology, we exist as national parks, and he always drives that point home.”