Citation

Dr. Andrea Mundl-Petermeier is recognized with the 2022 Hisashi Kuno Award for incredibly exacting analytical work that was used to extract evidence, using a radioactive isotope that has been extinct for about 4.5 billion years, on the current chemical structure of Earth’s interior. Her demonstration that variability in tungsten isotopic composition still exists in modern mantle-derived rocks is proof that Earth’s interior has not yet mixed away all the consequences of differentiation events that occurred within tens of millions of years of Earth formation. Besides setting limits on the effectiveness of silicate-Earth mixing driven by convection, her work is leading the way to resolving which aspects of mantle compositional variation relate to Earth’s initial differentiation as opposed to the continuing process of crust-mantle differentiation. Her 2017 paper in Science documented a correlation between 182W/184W and 3He/4He in modern intraplate oceanic basalts. The helium isotopic compositions of such basalts have been used for half a century to suggest the presence of “primordial” material in Earth’s interior, but Dr. Mundl-Petermeier’s results instead tie the high 3He component to a differentiated Earth reservoir characterized by low Hf/W that formed while 182Hf was still extant, for example, prior to 4.5 billion years ago. Her results show clearly that these ancient reservoirs have been preserved to the present day somewhere within Earth’s interior. Besides the exquisitely precise data presented in her papers, equally important have been her thorough and open-minded attempts to interpret these isotopic variations beginning with models for the prolonged mixing into Earth’s mantle of late-arriving extraterrestrial material, to models invoking exchange between mantle and core. If the latter explanation is correct, Dr. Mundl-Petermeier has produced by far the strongest evidence that core and mantle have exchanged at least isotopic signatures through time, and that some intraplate volcanism ultimately derives from near the core-mantle boundary. Both ideas have been discussed for decades, but the conclusive evidence has been missing. Dr. Mundl-Petermeier has contributed the most convincing evidence yet on these important questions regarding the processes that drive the chemical evolution of Earth’s interior. The 11 papers she produced while a postdoc at the University of Maryland represent perhaps the most potentially impactful work ever done in the solid Earth sciences in such a short period by an early-career scientist. —Richard W. Carlson, Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C.

Response

Thank you, Rick, for those kind words, for your ongoing support, and for nominating me for this award! I feel very honored to have received this incredible recognition and would like to thank all the people involved in my nomination, as well as the AGU Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section and the Kuno committee for choosing me. There are many early-career scientists just as deserving of this award, so I am very grateful! I am thankful to my Ph.D. adviser, Theo Ntaflos, at the University of Vienna, who introduced me to isotope geochemistry and early on gave me the opportunity to work very independently. He opened the door to international collaborations that resulted in many future opportunities. I owe this award to my postdoc adviser, Rich Walker, who gave me the chance to work on this very exciting topic of tungsten isotopes. Working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland from 2015 to 2018 opened the door for me to work with the best scientists in the field, resulted in long-lasting collaborations, and ultimately set me up for future success. Rich provided incredible knowledge and the necessary working environment for me to achieve the best results possible. I am forever grateful for this opportunity and the continuous support! To my best friends in geochemistry, Brad Peters and Jesse Reimink: Thank you for making this journey so much fun, for your friendship and collaborations, and for all the doughnuts! I am thankful to all my past and ongoing collaborators and the many people in this community who have supported me throughout my career! Thank you to my husband, my family, and my friends, who kept me motivated and who always believed in me, and to Leo, who has been by my side every step of the way. —Andrea Mundl-Petermeier, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Marion Garçon and Daniel A. Stolper received the 2019 Hisashi Kuno Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

Marion Garçon, starting with her Ph.D. thesis, has made seminal and definitive contributions to geochemistry. Her thesis was a milestone in our understanding of the so-called “zircon effect” in sediments. This effect causes the Lu/Hf ratios of pelagic clays to be systematically higher than the corresponding ratio in the continental sediment sources. Hafnium in sediments is sequestered in zircons, and most of those zircons don’t make it into the deep sea. Marion showed where and how this zircon sorting starts in rivers long before the sediments are carried out to sea. This led to greatly improved understanding of how mineral sorting fractionates the chemical and isotopic compositions of sedimentary material.

Marion followed this with a definitive study of the role of accessory minerals in dominating the isotopic composition of sediments, not only for zircons but also for allanite and monazite, as well as K-feldspar. Next, she showed how erosion and transport biases the composition of sediments: In a large-river water column, the near-surface suspended sediments overrepresent the mafic portion of the source region, while the near-bottom sediments are biased toward the more felsic source materials.

In a recent paper, Marion delineated the major source components of classic early Archean Barberton sediments from South Africa. She showed that the detrital sedimentary component derived from a crust that is 300–400 Ma older is dominated by mafic–ultramafic sources. Overall, she showed that the South African Archean crust has about 60% SiO2 and is thus significantly more mafic than more recent continental crust.

Most recently, she has contributed an exhaustive investigation of the mass spectrometric methodology needed to achieve the “ultimate” precision for Nd isotope ratio measurements, one which is limited only by counting errors.

I stand in awe of the originality, thoroughness, and exceptional quality of Marion’s work.

—Albrecht W. Hofmann, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

Response

Thank you, Al, for your support. It is an honor to receive this unexpected award, and I would like to thank all the people involved in my nomination, the Kuno committee, and the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology (VGP) section for awarding me this prize.

I owe a lot to my Ph.D. adviser, Catherine Chauvel, who introduced me to geochemistry during my master’s. She was a wonderful Ph.D. adviser who passed on to me her passion and rigor of analytical chemistry. Thank you, Catherine, for being so enthusiastic and supportive from the beginning. I would not be here today without you.

Following my Ph.D., I was lucky enough to do a postdoc at Carnegie Institution with Rick Carlson and Steve Shirey, who are incredibly talented researchers, always keen to discuss ideas, results, and analytical issues. I learned a lot from you and thank you for making my Carnegie experience wonderful from both the professional and personal points of view.

I am also grateful to Maud Boyet, who welcomed me with open arms at Clermont-Ferrand and was always very supportive when it came to writing applications, grants, and manuscripts. She is a bright person with a lot of human qualities, and I am very happy to have her as a colleague now. Finally, I thank my colleagues, office mates, and collaborators at Terre, Carnegie, ETH Zürich, and Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans for making my daily working life rich and fun.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the unconditional support of my wife, Lucie, who coached me on so many talks and interviews. I also thank my parents and parents-in-law, who were always supportive of my professional choices even if they still do not really understand what I do with rocks. I feel very lucky to have you all and our baby girl, Jade.

—Marion Garçon, CNRS Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Marion Garçon and Daniel A. Stolper received the 2019 Hisashi Kuno Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

It is my pleasure to introduce Daniel Stolper, recipient of the 2019 Kuno Award. This award is given in honor of Hisashi Kuno, who was instrumental in our understanding of subduction zone magmatism, worked with Harry Hess in the years leading to the formulation of the modern theory of plate tectonics, and was an intellectual leader in petrology throughout his career at the University of Tokyo.

Daniel is a worthy recipient of this award for a number of reasons. Most obvious are his recent papers on the evolution of the oxidation state of Earth’s ocean and atmosphere, based on the observed variation through time of the oxidation state of iron in weathered igneous rocks and arc volcanics. This body of work elegantly illuminates the diverse roles of igneous rocks as records and hosts of oxidation and of magmatism as an active part of Earth’s redox cycles.

It is also noteworthy that these studies did not arise from a formal background in igneous petrology, but rather grew organically from Daniel’s training and interests across diverse subjects in the natural sciences. He is a genuine polymath whose contributions span great intellectual breadth and often come about by connecting the insights of one field to the needs of another. Over the past 5 years, Daniel has moved freely between whole-Earth, deep-time geochemistry; cutting-edge analytical technologies; experimental petrology; the geochemistry, petrology, and crystal chemistry of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks; petroleum geoscience; Pleistocene climate change; and biology and biochemistry. Every subject he has touched has resulted in novel inventions, incisive reinterpretations of old data, and bold new proposals.

Thank you for joining me in this celebration of Daniel’s receipt of the Kuno Award in recognition of his groundbreaking scholarly contributions to the Earth sciences.

—John M. Eiler, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

Response

Thank you, John, and thank you to the VGP section for this wonderful honor. My scientific education began at age six when I started going with my father, Ed Stolper, a Caltech geology professor, to weekly Saturday lunches attended by Caltech geology students, postdocs, and professors, including Sam Epstein, Lee Silver, and Dave Stevenson. At these lunches, all topics, from science to pop culture, were debated with vigor. What I remember most is that everyone, no matter their age or background, was treated as an intellectual equal. These lunches shaped two of my core scientific values. First, it is the idea that matters, not from whom it comes. Second, we are in the business of the search for the truth, and intellectual debate is key to this endeavor.

My formal geological training began at Harvard with inspiring classes from Dan Schrag, Paul Hoffman, Ann Pearson, and Andy Knoll. After an amazing year in Don Canfield’s lab, I began graduate school at Caltech working with John Eiler. John served as a role model on how to be both a scientist and a mensch. Finally, I was a postdoc at Princeton with Michael Bender. This was a formative experience in which Michael ingrained in me the importance of rigor. I have been an assistant professor at Berkeley for 3 years and am blessed with supportive colleagues. Although I am often unsure of where my research is headed, these experiences, mentors, and colleagues give me confidence it is headed somewhere.

Finally, I thank my family. My father has immeasurably influenced my scientific principles and values. I especially wish to thank my wife, Leslie, for her unending support and my daughter, Yael, for reminding that there is more to life than work, even if that reminder comes at four in the morning.

—Daniel A. Stolper, University of California, Berkeley

Leif Karlstrom will receive the 2018 Hisashi Kuno Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2018, to be held 10–14 December in Washington, D. C. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

Leif is a creative young professor at the University of Oregon whose broad research interests span many of the most fundamental questions in volcanology. Leif uniquely blends theory and modeling with observational constraints, using process-based simulations to develop hypotheses that are tested with field and laboratory data. Leif’s most mature line of work, initiated during his Ph.D. at University of California, Berkeley, examines the formation and evolution of magma chambers, with implications for the size and spacing of volcanic centers and the thermal evolution of Earth’s crust. Leif’s understanding of the connections between volcanism, global-scale geodynamics, and tectonophysics is evident in his novel insights into classic problems like the Chicxulub impact and Deccan Traps flood basalts at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, as well as corner flow in subduction zones and associated arc volcanism and trench migration. He is presently developing a new framework for understanding the evolving topography of volcanic islands like Hawaii through coupled models of lava flows and landscape evolution. Leif is equally talented at problems and processes at vastly shorter length and time scales, as evidenced in his work, begun during his postdoc at Stanford University, on oscillations of magma in interconnected conduit and dike systems as an explanation for very long period seismic events at Kīlauea and Erebus. And, in addition to all of these volcanology projects, Leif maintains an equally impressive research program on the topographic evolution of glaciers and ice sheets by river networks on the ice surface. In honor of Leif’s scientific passion, vision, and accomplishments, we bestow upon him the 2018 Hisashi Kuno Award.

—Eric M. Dunham, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Response

Thank you for the kind words, Eric. It is a great honor to receive the Hisashi Kuno Award from the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section of AGU. Science progresses through human interactions, and in accepting this award I would like to thank a few specific people who have helped to shape my scientific worldview thus far. My father, Karl Karlstrom, exposed me to wild places containing lots of rocks and to the full spectrum of the scientific community from an early age. Although I was not a geoscience major during my undergraduate education, while I was a student Eugene Humphreys first excited me about mathematical modeling of Earth processes. My primary Ph.D. advisor, Michael Manga, remains an unquantifiable influence in my scientific life and opened the door to graduate school for me in the first place after I had been rejected by physics programs and was considering a career washing high-rise building windows. So thanks to Michael for believing in me. Mark Richards and Bill Dietrich were also influential during graduate school, suggesting research pathways that I am still pursuing today. During my postdoc, Eric Dunham set a standard for mathematical rigor and physical insight that is always with me. Paul Wallace and my current departmental colleagues make the University of Oregon an inspiring and collegial place to work. Finally, I thank my wife, Brittany Erickson, for graciously correcting my math mistakes and being a constant source of joy in my life.

—Leif Karlstrom, University of Oregon, Eugene

Matthew Steele-MacInnis and James Watkins will receive the 2017 Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, or petrology.”

Citation

It is my pleasure and honor to introduce Matt Steele-MacInnis, recipient of the Hisashi Kuno Award for 2017. It is appropriate for Matt to be recognized by the VGP section of AGU, as he has made significant contributions in volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology, as well as other areas. His research defines and quantifies fundamental chemical and physical processes and provides a sound basis for interpreting field- and laboratory-based observations in a broad range of geologic environments. Matt earned his B.Sc. (Honors) in Earth sciences (with a minor in math) from Memorial University in Newfoundland, where he received numerous honors, including the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Geoscience (Lou Visentin Award). At Virginia Tech, Matt was named an Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Doctoral Fellow and, upon completion of his Ph.D., was honored with the Virginia Tech College of Science 2013 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. During his tenure at Virginia Tech, Matt conducted experimental studies to determine the phase behavior of iron-bearing hydrothermal fluids, developed thermodynamically based methods to interpret volatile contents obtained from melt inclusion analyses, conducted theoretical studies to predict speciation and structural states of ions in solution, and developed numerous numerical methods to interpret fluid chemistry based on laser ablation inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and microthermometric analysis of fluid inclusions. Matt’s Ph.D. research, as well as collaborative research with other students and faculty at Virginia Tech and elsewhere, resulted in more than 20 publications in top international journals. Following his Ph.D. studies at Virginia Tech, Matt was awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship and conducted postdoctoral research at ETH in Zurich. In 2015, Matt joined the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona as a tenure-track assistant professor, and in August 2017 he returned to his native Canada to accept a faculty position at the University of Alberta.

—Robert J. Bodnar, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

Response

Thank you, Bob, for your kind words and support. I want to thank my nominators, the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section, and the Kuno Award Committee for bestowing this honor. I also want to thank many people who have guided me along my career path so far. John Hanchar at Memorial University was instrumental in guiding me toward graduate school and specifically toward joining Bob Bodnar at Virginia Tech. I owe much to Bob. He introduced me to the world of geologic fluids and fluid inclusions, but he also taught me how to be an effective scientist, and he conveyed an infectious enthusiasm and work ethic that drove me and my fellow students to push harder. I am indebted to my cohort of fellow grad students at Bob’s lab, too many to name. During my Ph.D., I spent 1 year as a visitor at GFZ Potsdam, where Christian Schmidt introduced me to experiments on fluids and melts. I was also extremely fortunate to have two exceptional postdoc advisors at ETH Zurich: Both Chris Heinrich and Thomas Driesner broadened my perspectives on geologic fluids immensely, from large-scale processes to microscopic-scale properties. Throughout this time, several early-career colleagues became regular collaborators and helped me branch out into different fields, especially Georg Spiekermann, Rosario Esposito, Joachim Reimer, and Kyle Ashley. And, of course, another regular and long-term collaborator also happens to be my wife, Pilar Lecumberri-Sanchez. I cannot express how grateful I am to Pilar for all of her support. It helps that we can discuss science both at work and at home, without arguing too much.

—Matthew Steele-MacInnis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alb., Canada

Matthew Steele-MacInnis and James Watkins will receive the 2017 Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, or petrology.”

Citation

James Watkins embodies the essence of modern dynamic petrology and geochemistry, continuing and extending the Kuno legacy of quantitative study of igneous rocks. Jim’s work has combined novel high-temperature experiments, careful isotopic analysis, numerical modeling, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics to bring us a new level of understanding of diffusion-related isotopic effects in magmas and other liquids. He also takes his insight to the field and has produced novel measurements and interpretations of chemical effects around vesicles in glassy lavas that yield information about the pressure history of magma as it approaches eruption. The elegant combination of careful experimental work, detailed observations using multiple methods of analysis, and thoughtful modeling is Jim’s hallmark and places him in a rare class of Earth scientists.

Since establishing his research program at the University of Oregon, Jim’s scientific reach has expanded beyond igneous systems. He has derived and tested with experiment a nearly complete description of nonequilibrium isotopic effects in the formation of calcite from aqueous solution, which puts these effects on a firm theoretical basis and promises to make calcite an even richer recorder of past Earth surface conditions. It also begs us to further investigate departures from equilibrium in high-temperature systems.

Jim exhibits no fear in learning new techniques and theory or bravely tackling daunting problems with which he has little previous experience. But he is also more than comfortable working with multiple collaborators to pool expertise on difficult problems. He is the type of person you want as both a colleague and a friend, and these traits will help him continue to spread his scientific influence in the future. In recognition of his original research in fundamental aspects of magma transport processes and aqueous mineral growth, I am indeed pleased to see James Watkins recognized as a 2017 recipient of the AGU Kuno Award.

—Donald J. DePaolo, University of California, Berkeley

Response

I am very grateful to my nominators and the Kuno committee for this honor and for this rare opportunity to publicly acknowledge those who nurtured my curiosity from a young age.

My father is an accountant who loves numbers, and my mother is a teacher who loves nature. It’s neat to think that these traits are expressed in the work that I do for a living. Despite being from a small town in rural Wisconsin, I received a fine public education thanks to some amazing, yet underappreciated, teachers: Laird, Shelton, Majeski, Flynn, Hughes, and Rosenbush—thank you for your unwavering dedication.

University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire was a wonderful place to receive a liberal arts education. Getting into Berkeley was a dream, and I’m forever thankful to Don DePaolo and Michael Manga for taking a chance on me, teaching me how to (among many other things) integrate experiments with mathematical models, and for all the wisdom and resources they continue to provide. I met a lot of brilliant people at Berkeley; Rick Ryerson and Chris Huber were that and more—special thanks to them for basically being my third and fourth Ph.D. advisors.

The University of Oregon invested in me early, and I share this award with my tremendously supportive UO colleagues. I also appreciate my collaborators from other institutions, in particular, Jim Gardner, Fang-Zhen Teng, Casey Saenger, Laurent Devriendt, Kenny Befus, Kate Huntington, Jon Hunt, and Shaun Brown—it is a delight working with all of you alongside our students. There are many others not mentioned here who have had a positive impact on me, wittingly or not, and I will thank them individually in person. Finally, I thank my wife and personal seismologist, Amanda Thomas, for all her support. My favorite collaborative project is rearing our lovely daughter, Ophelia.

—James Watkins, University of Oregon, Eugene

Esteban Gazel will receive the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2016 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 12–16 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

Esteban showed up at Lamont as a postdoc and took the place by storm. Fresh from a Ph.D. at Rutgers with Claude Herzberg and Mike Carr, and already with a Nature paper under his belt on the secular cooling of plumes, he promptly wrote several successful NSF proposals, and started up projects with me, Conny Class, and Peter Kelemen. I just stood back and watched Esteban go, in awe of his drive and enthusiasm. To use one of my father’s favorite expressions—he’s a house afire.
For much of his career, Esteban has explored the crosstalk between the Galapagos hot spot and the Costa Rica volcanic arc. Of course, they communicate through the subduction of the Galapagos plume track material, and Esteban discovered the compositional effects of a plume on an arc. Most recently, in a Nature Geoscience paper, he has shown how this region, almost unique in the globe, is currently cooking up bona fide continental crust. By developing a geochemical Continental Index and relating it to seismic velocities, Esteban proposed a new recipe for continental formation that involves some familiar processes, like slab melting, and more exotic ingredients, like enriched oceanic crust.

At Virginia Tech, Esteban has in a short time built a large group of young scientists who are already starting their own careers. With them, Esteban is working on everything from Virginia volcanoes to the break-up of Rodinia and the magmas of Mars.

As Esteban likes to say, geology is the passion of his life. He was born in Costa Rica and grew up on the volcanoes he has studied. He is already known to the President of Costa Rica, having been recognized with the Costa Rican National Award of Science. For the discoveries he has made on hot spots, volcanic arcs, and the continental crust, let us recognize him here with the 2016 Hisashi Kuno Award.

—Terry Plank, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, N.Y.

Response

Thank you, Terry, for your kind words. I also want to acknowledge the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section for awarding me the great honor of being the recipient of this year’s Hisashi Kuno Award. Special thanks to Roberta Rudnick for the nomination and my supportive colleagues who wrote letters. Finally, none of this would be possible without the unconditional support of my wife, Naya, and the educational opportunities from both Costa Rica and the United States.

My geologic adventure started many years ago, as my childhood was crafted with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. During my undergraduate years at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), my fascination for deciphering the Earth’s secrets evolved from simple curiosity to becoming the passion of my life. I met Mike Carr, my Ph.D. advisor, during one of his visits to the UCR, and Kaj Hoernle and Lina Patino were also important influences during my undergraduate education. During my Ph.D. at Rutgers, Mike became a dean, which allowed for me to have the opportunity to work on mantle petrology with Claude Herzberg.

By the end of my Ph.D., thanks to Peter Kelemen and Terry Plank’s support, I was lucky enough to receive the Postdoctoral Fellowship at Lamont. At Lamont, I not only made my first steps to understanding volatiles in magmas, but also learned how to write competitive proposals, think on a larger scale, and properly communicate my science. I got to work with, among others, Peter, Terry, Conny Class, and Al Hofmann, who not only became my mentors but also my friends. For the past five years at Virginia Tech my network of supportive colleagues and friends grew. Today, I share with my students the joy of doing what I love, working on solving the puzzles of the Earth one piece at a time.

—Esteban Gazel, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

Christian Huber will receive the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2015 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

It gives me great pleasure to introduce the 2015 Hisashi Kuno Award recipient, Christian Huber. It is truly fitting that Chris should receive an award celebrating the activities of a young scientist in the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology (VGP) section as his research touches on a range of themes covered by this section. The research Chris has conducted spans diverse topics from volcano seismology to deciphering magmatic time scales from diffusion profiles. He already has written several influential papers on rejuvenation and pore-scale processes in magmatic systems, and he continues to broaden his research portfolio examining reactive porous flows and bubble coalescence and interacting with diverse data sets from crystal diffusion profiles to ground deformation.

Throughout his career Chris has blended Earth science and physics and has pursued rigor even when it has taken him on paths traveled by few. After receiving his geology undergraduate degree from the University of Geneva, he continued to do a master’s in volcano seismology, including a stint at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park working with Bernard Chouet. He then received a second B.S. in physics from Geneva, before applying to work on his Ph.D. in Berkeley, with Michael Manga. Chris is a valuable faculty member at Georgia Tech, where he is an engaging presence. Chris is quick to incorporate new ideas and to distill the crux of many physical arguments. He is also a very collegial individual, and this has contributed to his ability to work with many students and faculty at Berkeley, Georgia Tech, and elsewhere.

Chris has a great mix of curiosity, creativity, and quantitative skill that makes him a real pleasure to interact with. Fellow VGP members, it is my privilege to present Christian Huber, this year’s recipient of the Kuno Award.

—Josef Dufek, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Response

Thank you, Joe. I want to thank the committee, the VGP section of the American Geophysical Union, and my nominators for this honor.

During my studies in Earth sciences in Geneva, Mike Dungan offered a field experience in the San Juan Islands to assist Pete Lipman (former postdoc of H. Kuno) and a second-year Ph.D. student, Olivier Bachmann. This experience ignited my passion for volcanology and initiated a friendship with Olivier that has lasted now for 18 years. Later, Bernard Chouet and Phil Dawson set the standard for patience while mentoring graciously the inept master student that I was. My struggles prompted the decision to step back from Earth sciences for 4 years and study physics.

After physics, I moved to Berkeley for a Ph.D. with Michael Manga. Michael has always been a kind and patient adviser as he tried to show me the Jedi way to science. Don DePaolo also played an important role advising me about science and academia. Jim Watkins was my partner in crime; we remain close friends and collaborators to this day. As Joe Dufek joined Berkeley for his postdoc, it started a friendship and collaboration that has led me to Georgia Tech. There, I am blessed with great colleagues such as Andy Newman, Carol Paty, Ken Ferrier, Yuanzhi Tang, Martial Taillefert, and Chris Reinhardt.

Since I started at Georgia Tech, I learned about my role of researcher and adviser from Olivier Bachmann, Dave Bercovici, Mark Jellinek, and Helge Gonnermann. I am extremely proud of my talented Ph.D. students, Yanqing Su, Salah Faroughi, and Hamid Karani. My good fortune has allowed me to lure in gifted postdocs, and I owe a lot to all of them. Andrea Parmigiani has been a special friend and collaborator for close to 10 years now, and I started exciting collaborations with Wim Degruyter, Caroline Bouvet de Maisonneuve, Babak Shafei, and, more recently, Tarsilo Girona.

Finally, I would like to dedicate this award to my family, my wife, Olga, and daughter, Benedicte, and to my mother and late father. Thank you!

—Christian Huber, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Matthew Jackson received the 2014 Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, held 15–19 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

Matt Jackson was a student of Stan Hart at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) who pioneered the use of intraplate volcanism to investigate the structure and causes of mantle chemical heterogeneity. Matt’s work has well shown how much fundamental information remains to be extracted from the compositional variations in intraplate volcanism. His thesis involved very fine scale laser ablation isotope analysis of melt inclusions from Samoa and confirmed that the radiogenic signature derives from recycled crust in the mantle source of these lavas. Matt and student Rita Cabral recently again used micron-scale measurements to detect processes operating over gigayear timescales and whole-mantle circulation when they found mass-independently fractionated sulfur, which had once been in the Archean atmosphere, in modern igneous sulfides. In between these discoveries, he stepped back in scale to use whole-rock compositional variations to document that some large igneous provinces derive from a mantle source formed within <200 million years of Earth formation. In work with a previous Kuno Award winner, Raj Dasgupta, Matt showed that the mantle compositional reservoirs defined by Stan Hart using trace elements and isotopes are expressed as well in major element composition, which has critical consequences for the dynamic behavior of the different components during their circulation through the mantle. Matt showed that the bipolar Kea-Loa chemical signature seen in Hawaii is common to many other hot spot traces, with implications for the way that hot spots sample the deepest parts of the mantle. Matt’s success reflects his energy and enthusiasm, a well-developed ability to converse, impressive analytical talents, and, perhaps most importantly, his ability to see in, and extract from, complex data sets the answers that they contain to fundamental questions in solid Earth science. His research focus and magnitude of achievement make him a most deserving recipient of an award named in honor of Hisashi Kuno.

—Rick Carlson, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC

Response

Thank you, Rick, for your kind words, and for all of your support. And thanks to the Kuno committee and to my nominators for this truly unexpected award. This is an auspicious way to start my career with a terrific bunch of colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

I want to thank a few of the people that have inspired me to pursue geochemistry and have fun doing so. Phil Ihinger and the late Karl Turekian inspired me to pursue research at Yale, and after working in Phil’s lab, I was “fired up” about studying hot spot volcanism in graduate school.

So I signed up for 5 years with Stan Hart at the WHOI-MIT Joint Program, and working with Stan was a lot of fun. In fact, Stan often described doing geochemistry as “having fun,” and the philosophy stuck. I cannot imagine working with a more supportive graduate advisor. Rounding out the geochemical “dream team” were Nobu Shimizu and Mark Kurz, and a lot of really neat ideas were born during conversations in their offices.

Al Hofmann seemed to be ever present and was not shy about keeping me in line!

My postdoc at Carnegie continued the fun started at WHOI. Rick Carlson was supportive of exploring a lot of neat ideas, and I consider myself lucky to have his mentorship. Steve Shirey and Erik Hauri completed the ideal trio of mentors and created a fantastic postdoc experience.

Now I have students of my own, and they are teaching me how to have even more fun: Rita Cabra, Ellie Price, Julie Klath, and Floyd Jaggy. I am lucky to work with each of you.

My family has been incredibly supportive, and I am here today because of my family’s role in my life. My wife, Anna, has been my closest ally and friend and my strongest supporter. None of this would have been possible without you.

—Matthew Jackson, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, Calif.

Frédéric Moynier received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes “accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.”

Citation

Once upon a time, in a small town in wonderful Provence known by the name of Manosque, best known today, however, for being home to the international tokamak project, a boy was born to a local couple of chemists and was given the name of Frédéric. These parents decided to give him some education and sent him far away from his native Provence to the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon.

Fred was a great Ph.D. student, acquiring a strong background in chemistry from Janne Blichert-Toft and also learning how to solve more esoteric scientific problems with the rest of us. From 2002 to 2006, his Ph.D. in Lyon was a time not only of great friendship and fun but also of uplifting projects. Except for iron, nobody had ever before explored the isotopic variability of transition elements. Fred’s work on meteorites, lunar rocks, and plants is strong and original. One of his greatest strengths (sorry, Fred, but this is a rare quality) is to never shy away from learning from his own mistakes and to see science before pride. This was also the time a new friendship grew up, this time with Toshi Fujii, which would prove very productive. Although Janne and I advised a number of great Ph.D. students in Lyon, Fred was clearly among the better ones.

Then he had to find a job, and he flew across the great pond and all of the continental United States to work with our old friend and great scientist Qing-zhu Yin at the University of California, Davis. Their work on chromium isotopes on early condensates was a landmark. Qing-zhu also taught him the art of having an independent mind. Then Fred was hired by Washington University in St. Louis, and this is where he really made his name. His work on stable isotope fractionation, both mass dependent and mass independent, and extinct radioactivities earned him both a standing in the community and his tenure. The paper of his great surgeon-student Randy Paniello on zinc volatility during the lunar giant impact truly stirred the community and represents a great recognition for the “small” isotopes Fred personifies. Fred’s contribution to medical applications of transition metal isotopes is also particularly promising.

Mostly for family reasons, Fred is now moving to Paris, and all I wish for him is to be welcomed as warmly as he was in St. Louis. His future is bright, and his star is still rising.

It is my great pleasure and honor to present to you today Frédéric Moynier for the Kuno Award.

—FRANCIS ALBARÈDE, Ecole Normale Supérieure Lyon, Lyon, France

Response

I would like to thank the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section for awarding me this prize and all the people who were involved in my nomination and wrote the letters. When Catherine McCammon phoned me to let me know that I was awarded the Kuno Award, I was very surprised at first, and then I felt very honored and lucky. I have been very lucky to have Francis Albarède and Janne Blichert-Toft as Ph.D. advisors. Without their mentoring, I would not be standing here today. Completing my Ph.D. in this dynamic laboratory was an incredible experience, and I was very fortunate to meet many people who became mentors, collaborators, and friends, among whom I will cite Arnaud Agranier, Pierre Beck, and Toshi Fujii.

My postdoc in California under the supervision of Qing-zhu Yin was also an extraordinary and productive experience.

I would like to thank Washington University and the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. They trusted me enough to let me have my own lab. It allowed me to build new collaborations with distinguished scientists and also gave me the opportunity to advise great graduate students and postdocs: Randy Paniello, Kun Wang, Max Thiemens, Chen Heng, Maria Valdes, Emily Pringle, Chizu Kato, Paul Savage, and Julien Foriel.
I would also like to thank my new institution, the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, and the Université Paris Diderot. I already have very exciting collaborations with James Badro, Julien Siebert, Manuel Moreira, Edouard Kaminski, and, I am sure, many others in the future.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Danielle and Jean; my sister, Florence; and, especially, my wife, Marie, and son, Louis, who are in the room today.

—FRÉDÉRIC MOYNIER, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, France

Rajdeep Dasgupta received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting, held 3–7 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology."

Citation

Raj got his M.S. at Jadavpur University in India in 2000 and then, from 2001, spent 5 years at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, for his Ph.D. He arrived at Rice University as an assistant professor in 2008. Four years later, he has set the world on fire. He has more than 30 publications, more than 1000 citations, an H-index of 17, and three first-authored papers with more than 100+ citations, along with several more that seem to be on their way to hitting that 100 mark.

He is the world’s expert on the deep carbon (C) cycle, from the effects of carbon dioxide on deep mantle melting and the origin of the asthenosphere to the solubility of reduced C in magmas and the core, with implications for early differentiation processes on Earth and Mars. He and his students have made fundamental contributions on the role of melt-rock reaction in generating magma compositions similar to what we see in some ocean islands. He presented a creative way of using major elements in magmas to constrain the composition of the magma source region in the mantle. He is making new headway into the deep sulfur (S) cycle with new models for S solubility on basalts of Martian relevance as well as the solubility of reduced S species in high-pressure aqueous systems relevant to Earth, the latter challenging traditional views of the deep S cycle. He has developed a state-of-the-art experimental facility at Rice University, complete with several piston cylinders and a multianvil apparatus. With Raj and his fantastic students and postdocs, his lab is one of the most productive and creative in the world. All of this has been recognized by other awards: the Packard, the Clarke Medal from the Geochemical Society, and the National Science Foundation CAREER award.

But, to me, the most important aspect of Raj is not all of these metrics and great accomplishments at such a young age but rather the impact he has made on my own research and that of the department. His ideas, thought process, and strong work ethic have shaped our young and growing “solid” Earth group here at Rice. His fugacity, or effective pressure, extends far beyond his already impressive H-index, changing the views of all who happen to pass near his sphere of influence. He has already started to build a legacy, and for this reason, the Kuno award is most fitting.

—CIN-TY A. LEE, Rice University, Houston, Texas

Response

Ever since I started pursuing research, AGU Fall Meetings have been the gathering to feel part of something grand. Hence to be recognized by such an organization is a real honor. Thank you, ­Cin-Ty, for the generous introduction. I’m really glad to have received the citation from a great colleague.

My scientific curiosity was first nurtured in Jadavpur University. I would specially mention Somnath Dasgupta, Pulak Sengupta, Pradip Bose, and the late Prasanta Bhattacharya for teaching me what petrology is. After finishing my education in India, all I knew was that I wanted to pursue research in petrology, but not much beyond that; to follow the career paths of Mainak Mookherjee and Saswata Majumder at that time was key, which led me to come to graduate school in the United States.

Minnesota was cold, but warm interactions and the tutelage of many at the geology and geophysics department made my stay there worthwhile. While pursuing a Ph.D., I learned from Marc Hirschmann how to ask important questions. During my postdoc days at Lamont, I learned from the maestro of high-pressure experiments, Dave Walker. I also have been fortunate to receive selfless encouragement from a number of you. I would especially mention Jackie Dixon, Stan Hart, Al Hofmann, Bruce Watson, Peter Kelemen, Claude Herzberg, Mainak Mookherjee, and Greg Hirth in this regard.

In 2008, Rice gave me the platform from which to launch a research program. But, more important, it gave me great colleagues, including Cin-Ty Lee and Adrian Lenardic, among others. I have also been kept busy by an exciting group of students and postdocs. Kyusei, Veronique, Justin, Ananya, Megan, Han, Shuo, Christine, Sébastien, Jasmine, and now Peter, thank you all for including me in your life experiments.

I would not be here without the encouragement and love of my grandparents, the late Santwana and Professor Lokaranjan Dasgupta; my parents; my brother; and my extended family. And I am very happy that my father is here with me to join the celebration. Finally, without my wife Sushmita, I would not be able to embark on this voyage of scientific discovery and ­self-­discovery, so this award is as much hers as mine.

—Rajdeep Dasgupta, Rice University, Houston, Texas

Katherine Kelley received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, held 5–9 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology."

Citation

Fresh out of Macalester College, Katherine Kelley was inspired to move to Kansas, ironically, on the promise of a sea­going opportunity: drilling the world's oldest oceanic crust. From this experience, Katie took a leadership role in studying seafloor alteration, became an expert in laser ablation inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and wrote a definitive paper on the chemical fractionation in the U-Th-Pb system from the ridge to the subducting slab and beyond. This work is Katie's best cited, but it is not what she is best known for. Instead, during most of her time at Boston University, where she finished her degree, and at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Department of Terrestrial Magnetism), where she did a postdoc, Katie worked on measuring the water contents of arc magmas. She found simple relationships between the water content of the mantle, the extent to which it melts, and the distance from the trench. This is the hallmark of Katie's work; the results seem so obvious after the fact. She has gone on to unravel one of the great knots in our field: how temperature, pressure, and water content contribute to magma generation beneath arcs.

Even with these major contributions, many consider Katie's most important work her most recent. In a dynamic partnership with Elizabeth Cottrell, Katie developed the micro-XANES technique to make the first coupled measurements of H2O and Fe3+/FeT in the same glass and melt inclusions. Of course, it is common knowledge that arc magmas are wetter and more oxidized than mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), but Katie and Liz's data are the first to show that these quantities relate. H2O and fO2 are the demons in petrology, and Katie has spent her short career on these elusive variables, finding remarkable relationships between them.

—Terry A. Plank, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y.

Response

Thank you, Terry, for your kind words, and thanks to AGU and the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section for this tremendous honor. Like that of any of us, my scientific work has grown from great collaborations, and I stand here on the shoulders of many generous and brilliant mentors and colleagues, with whom I share this terrific recognition.

My early interest in geology was fostered by my father, Phil Kelley, a cartographer and lifelong member of AGU. Great field experiences, from my undergraduate years at Macalester College with Karl Wirth in the Duluth Complex to a Fulbright year exploring Philippine volcanoes with Jun Yumul and Toti Corpuz, cemented my interests in volcanoes and the processes that create magma.

When I started my Ph.D. with Terry Plank, Terry herself was winning young scientist medals, and she was so vibrant and enthusiastic, I knew she would lead me to great scientific experiences. I also enjoyed countless productive interactions with Ed Stolper, Tim Grove, and Steve Parman that led to new models of hydrous melting beneath arcs and back-arc basins.

As a postdoc at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, I developed new perspectives on magmatic volatiles with Erik Hauri and had the greatest arguments with Paul Silver, Mark Behn, and Brian Savage, my supportive and loving husband. My colleagues at the Graduate School of Oceanography, particularly Steve Carey, Chris Kincaid, Rob Pockalny, and Art Spivack, now enrich my daily life with new perspectives.

Six years ago, Liz Cottrell and I had a lucky conversation at Carnegie's lunch club, which ultimately opened up a new frontier in geochemistry for us: accessing the key petrological variable of oxygen fugacity at microscopic spatial scales. Our work together has helped me grow as a scientist in new ways, and part of this award truly belongs to Liz as well.

—Katherine A. Kelley, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett

Josef Dufek and Alison Rust each received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting, held 13–17 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology."

Citation

It gives me great pleasure to introduce one of the Kuno Award recipients for 2010: Joe Dufek. Because his research work and his reputation precede him, most of you already know of Joe, which makes my task easier. Barely 4 years from completion of his doctoral work with George Bergantz at the University of Washington, Seattle, Joe has already published important and seminal work in the fields of volcanology and petrology. He's written on a wide diversity of subjects including particle—particle collisions and their effects on flow in volcanic conduits; the interaction between mafic dike injection and melting of the lower crust; multiphase transport processes of pyroclastic flows including the tracking and fate of individual phenocrysts; and thermomechanical coupling of crustal dynamics to magma chamber processes. Throughout, Joe has demonstrated that he is one of those rare Earth scientists who not only can recognize an important geologic problem but also knows how to investigate that problem in the field and how to creatively formulate and execute a model that contains enough physics and chemistry to generate results that are testable against observation. Joe has raised the bar in modeling pyroclastic eruption dynamics, and through the Kuno Award, the volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology (VGP) community has recognized the importance and relevance of his work in understanding the rock record. But, in addition to his research record, Joe is also well known for his modest character, his generosity of intellect, and his enthusiasm for sharing in collaborative research. Fellow VGP members, it is my honor and privilege to present Joe Dufek, this year's corecipient of the Hisashi Kuno Award.

—Mark S. Ghiorso, OFM Research, Inc., Seattle, Wash.

Response

Thank you, Mark, the Kuno committee, and the VGP community. I feel very fortunate. I have had the chance to interact with many excellent scientists over the past decade, and I really owe them a debt of gratitude.

While I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, Ray Pierrehumbert introduced me to the world of fluid dynamics. I also had the great fortune to meet Fred Anderson and started working in his lab. I cannot thank Fred enough for his patient explanations. Through Fred I was given the opportunity to interact with many excellent people at a young age, including Paul Wallace and Youxue Zhang.

During graduate school at the University of Washington, George Bergantz taught me a great deal about science and multiphase flow as we examined problems in the lower crust and eruption dynamics. While in Seattle, Mark Ghiorso, Olivier Bachmann, Ron Merrill, Kari Cooper, Stu McCallum, and Chris Newhall all were very influential to me, as were my excellent graduate cohorts.

I had the great luck to join the Miller postdoctoral program at University of California, Berkeley following graduate school, and my continuing collaboration with Michael Manga has been very fulfilling. Berkeley also introduced me to several amazing young scientists, two of whom, Chris Huber and Leif Karlstrom, have become close collaborators.

Over the past years I have had the opportunity to collaborate with many people who have taught me much, including Guil Gualda, Mark Ghiorso, Mark Jellinek, Bill Leeman, Dennis Geist, Karen Harpp, and Rob Lillis, among others. My colleagues at Georgia Institute of Technology have been absolutely supportive, and I thank my students who work hard and have much potential.

Mostly, I want to thank my parents and brother for their support, and my wife, Carol Paty, who has learned more geology and carried more rocks than she probably bargained for.

—Josef Dufek, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Josef Dufek and Alison Rust each received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting, held 13–17 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award recognizes "accomplishments of junior scientists who make outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology."

Citation

Alison Rust is an igneous petrologist and physical volcanologist whose work has addressed some of the most basic processes that govern the generation, ascent, and eruption of magma. This includes the rheology of bubbly magma; how to determine deformation rate and history of magmas using microstructures; measurements and models of the permeability of pumice; degassing of magma and, in particular, the coupled degassing and brecciation of magmas; convection in magmas that have a yield strength; and the generation of seismic waves by flow through channels and conduits.

This range of topics is remarkable. More impressive, however, is the broad range of approaches she uses to answer these fundamental volcanological questions: lab experiments, analytical geochemistry, fieldwork, numerical modeling, and developing theoretical models. Especially noteworthy is her clever and insightful use of analog experiments to make the key link between observations and theory.

Moving beyond incremental advances in igneous petrology often requires quantitative integration of observations, experiments, and models coupled with a healthy dose of creativity and a willingness to question standard ideas. These are attributes Alison has demonstrated with her past work, and we look forward to more in the future.

—Michael Manga, University of California, Berkeley

Response

It is an honor and a pleasure to receive the Kuno Award. There are, of course, so many people who deserve thanks, but I am especially indebted to my four enthusiastic advisors while I was a graduate student and postdoc: Kelly Russell, Michael Manga, Kathy Cashman, and Neil Balmforth. They were all very supportive but also gave me the space and freedom to make my own mistakes. I would like to thank Kelly for his contagious enthusiasm; Michael for his pithy, wise words; Kathy for bouncing ideas off everything; and Neil for teaching me things I didn't know I wanted to know.

I have landed at the University of Bristol, which is a remarkable environment in which to continue to develop as a researcher, although sometimes it's hard to get any work done with all the interesting discussions (thanks, Luca). I hope I can continue to find enjoyable collaborations and generate quality research worthy of the expectations of an early-career award.

—Alison Rust, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Edwin A. Schauble received the Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is for outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, or petrology.

Citation

It is my pleasure to present Edwin Schauble for the Hisashi Kuno Award of the AGU Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology (VGP) section, for his outstanding contributions to the field of geochemistry.

Edwin is a young scientist of uncommon distinction who has made a number of important contributions through his quantitative approach to stable isotope geochemistry.

Let me start by saying that when Edwin came to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), I learned two things. First, physics really does operate in predictable ways, even where isotopes are concerned, and second, disagreeing with Edwin is usually a lesson in humility!

Edwin's primary research entails calculating the partitioning of isotopes between materials of geological interest. In particular, he has produced pioneering predictions of partitioning among the so-called nontraditional stable isotopes. He has also followed through by testing his predictions experimentally. To date, Edwin has published important predictions for fractionation of Mg, Si, Ca, Cl, Fe, Cr, Hg, Tl, and U isotopes in a broad spectrum of minerals and fluid species.

In summary, Edwin is at the forefront of isotope geochemistry and can already claim several important discoveries to his credit, including, but not limited to, elucidation of the relative importance of valence state and coordination on iron isotope fractionation in nature, a large fractionation in Si isotopes that should exist between the metallic cores and rocky mantles of terrestrial planets, the quantification of mass-independent nuclear volume isotope effects in U and other elements, numerous predictions of mass-dependent nontraditional stable isotope fractionation with surprising accuracy, and development of the theory behind stable isotope “clumping.” This work has had a substantial impact on activities as disparate as reconstructing past climates and differentiation of terrestrial planets. His work is paving the way for new branches of geochemistry, and he is uniformly highly regarded by colleagues around the globe. For all of these reasons, I am sure you will agree that Edwin is most deserving of this prestigious award.

—Edward Young, University of California, Los Angeles

Response

Thanks for the kind introduction, and thanks to the VGP section of AGU. This award honors work done at the beginning of a career, and most of that honor should go to everyone who helped me make a good start. That list begins with my colleagues at UCLA: Ed Young, Abby Kavner, and Craig Manning, my students Jon Hunt and Pam Hill, postdoc Merlin Méheut, and many others. Sometime between junior high school and tenure, school got really fun, and all of you are the reason. I mostly try to figure out how isotopes get separated from each other—fractionated—in nature. We are in a golden age for this kind of work; talented researchers are developing new techniques to analyze isotopic compositions of one element after another, finding signatures that might help answer big questions in Earth and planetary science.

I want to thank George Rossman and Liz Johnson for helping me learn to model isotope fractionation, and Ariel Anbar and John Eiler for encouraging me to refine my initial, fairly crude results into a paper. I also want to thank John for a totally killer postdoc. My initial interest in metal isotope geochemistry owes much to Joe Kirschvink. Scientific chats with Joe tend to be about big ideas that sound crazy or impossible (think “panspermia”) but are backed up by an array of evidence (think “Snowball Earth”), and are at least occasionally true. These are still important criteria to me in finding problems to work on. I want to thank Hugh Taylor, my Ph.D. advisor, for the freedom to try something different and uncertain, and Steve Wickham, my undergraduate advisor, for introducing me to isotopes, mass spectrometers, and the satisfaction of making new measurements. Finally, I want to thank my parents, Carolyn and John Schauble, for teaching me that knowledge and love are the two things most worth adding to the world.

—Edwin A. Schauble, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles