Professor Dott's principal scholarly activities over the years have been in clastic sedimentology and earth history. He is co-author of a leading textbook of earth history, Evolution of the Earth (McGraw-Hill), which is now in its 7th edition. Since retiring in 1994, Dott has devoted most of his professional efforts to the history of geology. In 1993 he received the Twenhofel Medal of SEPM or the Society for Sedimentary Geology, and in 1995 he received the Geological Society of America's History of Geology Division Award.