2011 Bowen Awardee

It is an honor to introduce Jamie Connolly, winner of the 2011 Norman L. Bowen Award of the VGP. The Bowen Award recognizes outstanding contributions in a paper or series of papers. On this basis Jamie is doubly worthy of this honor.

Jamie Connolly is perhaps best known for creating and maintaining PERPLE_X, a package of computer codes modestly billed as having the purpose of “calculating and displaying phase diagrams, phase equilibria and thermodynamic data.” To some, Jamie’s code collection is that and nothing more. But this completely misses the point. Jamie wins high praise for linearizing the problem of minimizing G in n-dimensional space, the real achievement is where Jamie himself has led us. Instead of spending his energy recreating internally consistent thermodynamic data sets, or recomputing the next pseudosection for N-MORB, Jamie has worked to extend the methods by including key geophysical parameters in the calculations. This provides a framework for coupling petrology with geophysical modeling not only of Earth’s interior – but of other planetary bodies too. Today, computed density, Vp, and Vs structures of model crust and mantle are providing new opportunities for interactions between modelers, seismologists and petrologists. Jamie’s approach has transformed our understanding of the links between petrology, seismology and rheology in such important environments as subduction zones and the upper mantle.

Jamie Connolly has also made fundamental contributions in a second area: crustal fluid flow. Jamie was among the first to understand and explore crustal fluid flow via the dynamical approach of Dan McKenzie, Frank Richter, Dave Stevenson, and others, on compaction and porosity waves associated with melt production and migration. Jamie showed that fluid expulsion during metamorphism or sediment lithification is governed by deformation through a rock’s resistance to compaction. Jamie showed that, for compacting rocks, compaction can sustain high fluid pressure and lead to solitary waves of porosity that propagate independently of the reaction that produced the fluid. His contributions provided the first truly dynamic insights into this complex process.

In working at the interface between petrology and geodynamics, Jamie Connolly has advanced both fields through fundamental and rigorous contributions that offer deep understanding of crustal and mantle processes. It is this philosophy that spurred Norman Bowen, who would surely recognize a bit of himself in so accomplished a scholar as Jamie Connolly.

Thank you, Craig, for the kind citation. I am honored to receive the Bowen award. An award makes you ponder your own merit, so the nice thing about it is the realization that someone else has gone to the trouble of doing that for you and decided favorably. I am grateful to everyone involved in the nomination and evaluation process, and the VGP section, for allowing me to savour that realization.

How did I get here? I wish I could say I had some grand scheme, but the path I followed is better described by career as a verb than as a noun. I cannot thank everyone who has helped me along that path, so I will restrict myself to three individuals who determined the main directions that path has taken. The first is Derrill Kerrick, my PhD advisor at Penn State. When I arrived at Penn State I was already fascinated by phase diagrams, but I thought it was a passion that should not be admitted in public. Without Derrill I would never have come out of the closet, nor would I have learned how to water-ski or calculate seismic wave speeds. The second person is Alan Thompson, my post-doctoral mentor, whose swashbuckling cross sub-disciplinary raids made me realize that petrology, geodynamics and geophysics are intimately related. Alan and Derrill introduced me to worlds on different scales. Fourteen years ago, Yuri Podladchikov literally dragged me out of my office and began teaching me how to connect those worlds. I am extraordinarily pleased that he has not given up on that project.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the ETH. It attracts outstanding students who have done much to educate me; and not only is it large enough that you can find the answer to any question you care to ask, but it is also large enough to tolerate my idiosyncrasies.