Citation

Ming Hao received the 2022 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award for his outstanding work investigating the seismic visibility of eclogite in Earth’s upper mantle based on the experimentally determined pressure-/temperature-dependent single-crystal elasticity of omphacite and jadeite. Ming’s work on the high-pressure/-temperature elasticity of omphacite provides the most important thermal elastic parameters that are in critical need for locating eclogite in Earth’s upper mantle through seismic observations. The subducted basalt, or eclogite, is among the most important compositional heterogeneities in Earth’s deep interior. He found that an undeformed eclogite transformed from mid-ocean ridge basalt is seismically invisible between 200- and 300-kilometer depth, and a deformed 10-kilometer-thick oceanic crust can result in a delay time of approximately 0.2 second, which is not ignorable in the seismic shear-wave-splitting observations. Moreover, Ming also conducted the first high-pressure/-temperature single-crystal elasticity measurements on jadeite. He found that the shear modulus, thus Vs of jadeite, has extremely small, if not negligible, temperature dependence. Jadeite is extremely fast, even faster than pyrope, which is the magnesium (Mg) end-member of garnet, under upper mantle pressure-temperature conditions. As a result, the continentally originated sediments/crust, if subducted or delaminated into the deep Earth, would be significantly faster than the ambient mantle due to the abundance of jadeite in them. These discoveries are important for not only the mineral physics field but also the broader geophysics and geochemistry community, in terms of studying various geochemical heterogeneities in Earth’s interior. Since the completion of his Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico, Ming has become a postdoctoral fellow at the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science. He is now using a multianvil press to conduct sound velocity and electric resistivity measurements simultaneously on mantle materials at high-pressure/temperature conditions. —Jin Zhang, Texas A&M University, College Station

Response

I am honored and humbled to receive the 2022 Mineral and Rock Physics (MRP) Graduate Research Award. I am lucky that I had the chance to work with excellent people during my Ph.D. study at the University of New Mexico. I would first give my thanks to Dr. Jin Zhang, my adviser, for all the guidance and encouragement in the past 5 years. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Jin for her patient instruction and help to clarify various confusions that I encountered during my Ph.D. I also would like to thank all the wonderful scientists who have helped me in the past few years. Dr. Brandon Schmandt is my go-to person for seismology. Dr. Przemek Dera, Dr. Dongzhou Zhang, and Dr. Rostislav Hrubiak have provided enormous amounts of help with the X-ray diffraction experiments and X-ray falling sphere viscometry experiments (in particular, during the pandemic!). I am also thankful for all the stimulating discussions with Dr. Bin Chen, Dr. Adrian Brearley, Dr. Joshua Townsend, Dr. Peter Olson, and Dr. Qin Wang. I am also fortunate to conduct my Ph.D. research and collaborate with so many capable, kind, and helpful student/postdoc scientists such as Wen-Yi Zhou and Dr. Mingqiang Hou in Jin’s research group. Finally, thanks to the AGU Mineral and Rock Physics section for this award, and it means a lot to me. Thank you for your efforts to support graduate research. —Ming Hao, Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, D.C.

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It is my great privilege to recognize Dr. Ye Peng as a recipient of the 2022 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award. Ye earned her B.S. at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and her Ph.D. from Florida State University, working with Dr. Mainak Mookherjee. Ye has recently moved to Rice University as the Pan Postdoctoral Associate, where she is currently collaborating with Dr. Rajdeep Dasgupta and Dr. Cin-Ty Lee. During her Ph.D., Ye assessed whether seismically observed midlithospheric discontinuity (MLD) in cratons could be explained by metasomatism. To evaluate whether mantle metasomatism or the presence of hydrous mineral phases such as amphiboles can explain the geophysical observations of MLD, the physical properties of amphiboles needed to be better constrained at conditions relevant to MLD depths. Ye has made fundamental contributions by providing better constraints on the thermoelastic and transport properties of amphiboles relevant for MLD through a range of theoretical and experimental studies. Owing to her broad interests, she also contributed to a better understanding of seismic and magnetotelluric signatures of hydrous mineral phases in subduction zone settings. —Geeth Manthilake, Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans, CNRS, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Response

It is an honor for me to receive the 2022 Graduate Research Award from the AGU Mineral and Rock Physics section. I wish to express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Mainak Mookherjee, my Ph.D. adviser, who encouraged me to pursue various research topics, including midlithospheric discontinuities and subduction zone systems. He also offered me excellent opportunities to explore those research questions from different perspectives, ranging from first-principles simulations to experimental approaches. He provided incredible inspiration and support throughout my graduate school journey. During my Ph.D., I was extremely fortunate to work with many outstanding individuals who encouraged and supported me. Dr. Geeth Manthilake guided me to conduct multianvil-based seismic wave velocity and electrical conductivity experiments with tremendous expertise and patience. Dr. Rajdeep Dasgupta introduced me to the field of experimental petrology and provided me with stimulating feedback on my research work. I also want to thank my lab mates: Dr. Sumudu Tennakoon, who taught me resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and continued to help me even after he left for industrial work; Dr. Abhisek Basu, who led me in Raman spectroscopy and diamond anvil cells; Dr. Suraj Bajgain, who assisted me with molecular dynamics; and Aaron Ashley, who always gave critical suggestions for revising my manuscripts. The Graduate Research Award motivates me to continue to produce better work in the future and push my abilities forward. Thanks again to AGU and the Mineral and Rock Physics section for this recognition. —Ye Peng, Florida State University, Tallahassee

Kathryn M. Kumamoto and Christopher A. Thom received the 2019 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is “presented annually to one or more promising young scientists and recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of mineral and rock physics achieved during the honoree’s Ph.D. research.”

Citation

Kathryn Kumamoto will receive the 2019 Mineral and Rock Physics (MRP) Graduate Research Award for her outstanding doctoral work investigating plasticity and the role of water in the dynamics of upper mantle rocks.

Katie’s work on the plasticity of olivine used instrumented nanoindentation to resolve over 40 years of debate on the plastic strength of the lithosphere. She determined that the strength of olivine depends on a characteristic length scale (e.g., grain size). Katie recognized that this size effect explains the previous inconsistency among laboratory investigations while also demonstrating that most previous studies overestimate the strength of the lithosphere.

Katie also challenged two long-standing hypotheses regarding the role of water in upper mantle deformation. As an initial step, she characterized a set of new standards for secondary ion mass spectrometry that are now available for public use and represent a valuable resource for the community. Using these new standards, Katie unpicked the role of water in localizing deformation in upper mantle shear zones in the Josephine peridotite. Previous work asserted that water is central to the process of localization, but Katie demonstrated that although water does appear important, localization in these shear zones critically depends on a complex interplay between transport of a silicate melt and local equilibration between the melt and solid phases. She also challenged previous interpretations regarding the link between water content and the development of crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs). Katie demonstrated that CPO type can be modified without significant changes in water content. She alternatively proposed that CPO type can be modified by changes in deformation kinematics, which she validated through numerical simulation.

Since completion of her Ph.D. at Stanford University, Katie has become a National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences postdoctoral fellow hosted at the University of Oxford and now uses synchrotron-based deformation-DIA experiments to further elucidate the physics of plastic deformation in upper mantle rocks.

—Lars Hansen, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Response

I am honored and humbled to receive the MRP Graduate Research Award. I am fortunate to have worked with many outstanding individuals who have supported me in my scientific career. My Ph.D. advisor, Jessica Warren (University of Delaware), was an incredible role model and mentor throughout my graduate school experience and strongly encouraged me to examine my research questions from multiple perspectives, ranging from fieldwork to detailed geochemical analyses to experimental rock deformation. Lars Hansen (University of Minnesota) has been an invaluable colleague since my first year in graduate school, and we have collaborated on a wealth of activities that have spanned from small group presentations all the way to multiuniversity collaborative proposals and experimental work at large synchrotron facilities. During graduate school, I also had the distinct honor to work closely with Erik Hauri (Carnegie Institution of Washington) to develop and document standards and protocols for measuring water in mantle minerals with secondary ion mass spectrometry.

It is also important to acknowledge those scientists in my undergraduate career who helped me to develop a deep and passionate interest in pursuing research in the field of geology. Bud Wobus (Williams College), Mea Cook (Williams College), and Bjorn Mysen (Carnegie Institution of Washington) all played substantial roles in providing me with research opportunities, guidance, and encouragement, along with a healthy dose of good humor when anticipated research results were less than forthcoming. My hope is that I also can provide similar inspiration and support to others who wish to understand the inner workings of our planet.

Thank you to AGU and the Mineral and Rock Physics section for this award and for supporting graduate research.

—Kathryn M. Kumamoto, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K

Kathryn M. Kumamoto and Christopher A. Thom received the 2019 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2019, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif. The award is “presented annually to one or more promising young scientists and recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of mineral and rock physics achieved during the honoree’s Ph.D. research.”

Citation

For his Ph.D. thesis, Christopher Thom conducted groundbreaking research at the intersection of geophysics and materials science. Through application of methods not usually associated with rock mechanics, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation, Chris made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the roughness of natural faults and the frictional and rheological behavior of rocks. He extended measurements of fault roughness to the nanoscale using AFM, demonstrating self-affine roughness over at least 11 orders of magnitude in length scale. He showed that self-affinity at small scales results from the “smaller is stronger” dependence of yield strength on the size of the deforming volume, which he measured on actual fault surfaces via nanoindentation. Chris was also a major contributor to a paper that placed new constraints on the strength of the Earth’s lithosphere by considering the size dependence of the yield strength of olivine. Chris also provided fundamental constraints on the physical mechanisms of rock friction by measuring the nanoindentation creep rate of quartz in near-zero versus comparatively high humidity environments. Previous friction experiments on quartz rocks and powders for the same range of humidity showed that the time dependence of friction disappears at low humidity but is conspicuous at higher humidity. Chris’s experiments revealed no difference in the nanoindentation creep rate of quartz at low and high humidity, demonstrating that the time dependence of the frictional strength of quartz rocks cannot be due solely to asperity creep, the standard view of the past 40 years. Finally, Chris demonstrated how nanoindentation can be used to determine the bulk rheological behavior of rocks by conducting days-long nanoindentation creep experiments on halite single crystals; the resulting data agree remarkably well with those for polycrystalline halite deformed in macroscopic experiments.

Chris Thom has already had a remarkable impact on the field of mineral and rock physics for a scientist at this early stage of their career. On behalf of the AGU Mineral and Rock Physics section, I am very pleased to present the 2019 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award to Christopher Thom.

—David L. Goldsby, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Response

I am greatly honored and humbled to receive the 2019 Graduate Research Award from the Mineral and Rock Physics section of AGU, and I am grateful for the wonderful people I worked with during my time at the University of Pennsylvania.

I would first and foremost like to thank my Ph.D. adviser, David Goldsby, for giving me an opportunity to succeed and for providing constant encouragement along the way. He allowed me to pursue a wide range of research topics with unique methods such as nanoindentation. His guidance and years of experience tackling difficult issues related to rock friction paved the way for my work on the physical origins of frictional aging and scale-dependent plasticity.

I would also like to thank several individuals who have influenced my approach to science during my Ph.D. Rob Carpick introduced me to the world of tribology, which has affected how I approach rock friction problems at small scales. Emily Brodsky introduced me to measurements of fault roughness and always encouraged me to think about how my work related to the bigger picture. George Pharr was instrumental in teaching me nanoindentation methods and providing in-depth technical support whenever I needed it. A number of other collaborators such as Lars Hansen and Katie Kumamoto provided stimulating discussions on many topics related to plasticity, which I will continue to work on in my future career.

—Christopher A. Thom, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.

Earl O’Bannon, Esther Posner, and Natalia Solomatova will receive the 2018 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2018, to be held 10–14 December in Washington, D. C. This award is given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.

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Earl O’Bannon received his B.S. from University of California, Riverside, where he worked with Larissa Dobrzhinetskaya and Harry Green, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2017, where he was supervised by Quentin Williams. He is currently a postdoctoral scientist in the high-pressure physics group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His research interests include the structural properties of hydrous and carbon-bearing phases at mantle pressures and temperatures, metamorphic mineralogy, and how transition metals are bonded within silicates at extreme conditions.

Earl O’Bannon, Esther Posner, and Natalia Solomatova will receive the 2018 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2018, to be held 10–14 December in Washington, D. C. This award is given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.

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Esther Posner received her A.S.A. from Northwestern Michigan College in 2004, her B.S. in geology from Grand Valley State University in 2010, and her M.S. in geosciences from the University of Arizona in 2012. She completed her Ph.D. in experimental geosciences under the supervision of Dave Rubie at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut of Universität Bayreuth (Germany) in 2017 with her dissertation entitled “Mass transport and structural properties of liquid iron alloys at high pressure.” Esther is currently working at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut as a postdoctoral fellow and manager of the high-pressure experimental multianvil laboratory. Her research interests include the transport, structural, and elastic properties of minerals and melts and the formation and chemical evolution of planetary interiors.

Earl O’Bannon, Esther Posner, and Natalia Solomatova will receive the 2018 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at AGU’s Fall Meeting 2018, to be held 10–14 December in Washington, D. C. This award is given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.

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Natalia Solomatova received her B.S. in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2012 and her M.S. in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 2015. She completed her Ph.D. in geophysics under the supervision of Jennifer Jackson and Paul Asimow at Caltech in 2017. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France under the mentorship of Razvan Caracas. Her research interests include spin and phase transitions in iron-bearing lower-mantle minerals, the complex speciation of carbon in high-pressure silicate melts, and the chemistry and thermodynamics of the protolunar disk after the Moon-forming impact.

Harrison Lisabeth and Joshua Townsend will receive the 2017 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. This award is given annually to “one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.” Recipients of this award are “engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.”

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Harrison Lisabeth received his A.B. in geological sciences from Brown University in 2010 and a Ph.D. in geology under the supervision of Wenlu Zhu at the University of Maryland in College Park in 2016. He is currently working at Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher with the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage under the mentorship of Mark Zoback and Sally Benson. His research interests include the interaction of chemical and physical stresses in deforming materials, the intersection of rock mechanics and petrology, and science communication.

Harrison Lisabeth and Joshua Townsend will receive the 2017 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. This award is given annually to “one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research.” Recipients of this award are “engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.”

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Joshua Townsend received his B.S. in geology from Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis in 2010. He completed his Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences from Northwestern University in 2016 under the supervision of Steven Jacobsen and Craig Bina. Joshua is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the High Energy Density Physics Theory department at Sandia National Laboratories. His research interests include computational mineral physics and thermodynamics.

Jeffrey Pigott will receive the 2016 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

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Jeffrey Pigott received his B.A. in sociology and M.S. in mineral physics from The Ohio State University in 2002 and 2011, respectively. He completed his Ph.D. in mineral physics under the supervision of Wendy Panero at The Ohio State University, Columbus, in 2015. He is currently working at Case Western Reserve University as a National Science Foundation Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow under the mentorship of James Van Orman. His research interests include diffusion and thermodynamic properties of minerals at the extreme pressure-temperature conditions of Earth’s mantle and core.

Lucas Pimienta will receive the 2016 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

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Dr. Lucas Pimienta received his M.Sc. in Earth sciences from the IPG of Strasbourg and his Eng.D. in Geophysics from the EOST (Strasbourg, France) in 2011. He completed his Ph.D. in rock physics at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris in 2015, working under the supervision of Yves Guéguen and Jérôme Fortin. He recently received a mobility fellowship to carry out a research project on rocks’ thermal properties at the Applied Geophysics and Geothermal Energy institute of RWTH-Aachen. His research interests cover the physics and chemistry of rocks.

Yun-Yuan Chang will receive the 2015 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

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Yun-Yuan Chang received her B.S. in aeronautics and astronautics from National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan) in 2002 and a M.Sc. in material science and engineering from Stanford University in 2008. She received her Ph.D. in mineral physics under the supervision of Steven Jacobsen and Craig Bina at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Her research interests include the influence of defects on properties of minerals and Earth’s deep water cycle.

Dongzhou Zhang will receive the 2015 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

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Dongzhou Zhang received his B.S. in physics from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2008. He completed his Ph.D. in geophysics under the supervision of Jennifer Jackson at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, in 2014. He is currently the beamline scientist of the Partnership for eXtreme Xtallography program affiliated with the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and located at the GeoSoilEnviroCARS at Argonne National Laboratory. His research interests include physics and chemistry of the planetary interiors, high-pressure physics, and synchrotron-based X-ray techniques.

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Rebecca Fischer and Zack Geballe were awarded the 2014 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Fischer’s thesis is entitled “Earth’s accretion, core formation, and core composition.” Geballe’s thesis is entitled “Melting and freezing of metals under the high pressures of planetary interiors.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, held 15–19 December in San Francisco, Calif. Rebecca Fischer received her B.A. in integrated science and Earth and planetary sciences from Northwestern University in 2009. She is currently working toward a Ph.D. in high-pressure mineral physics under the supervision of Andrew Campbell at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include the compositions of Earth and planetary cores and the physical and chemical processes that determine their compositions.

Zack Geballe and Rebecca Fischer have been awarded the 2014 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award. This award is given to one or more promising young scientists in recognition of outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

Geballe’s thesis is entitled “Melting and freezing of metals under the high pressures of planetary interiors.” Fischer’s thesis is entitled “Earth’s accretion, core formation, and core composition.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, held 15–19 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Zack Geballe received his B.S. in physics from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in 2008. In Fall 2014 he completed his Ph.D. in high-pressure mineral physics under the supervision of Raymond Jeanloz at the University of California, Berkeley. His primary research interests are the thermal evolution of the Earth’s core and the physics of melting, freezing, and amorphization.

Lars received his B.S. in Earth science from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo in 2005 and his M.S. in geology from the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 2007. He received his Ph.D. under the supervision of David Kohlstedt from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in 2012. He recently completed an appointment as a postdoctoral scholar working with Jessica Warren at Stanford University. Lars is now a university lecturer in mineralogy and petrology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. His research interests are in the micromechanical behavior of viscously deforming rocks and its relationship to large-scale geodynamic processes.

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Hansen’s thesis is entitled “Evolution of the viscosity of Earth’s upper mantle: Grain-boundary sliding and the role of microstructure in olivine deformation.” Murphy’s thesis is entitled “Thermoelasticity of hexagonal close-packed iron from the phonon density of states.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif.

Lars N. Hansen and Caitlin A. Murphy were awarded the 2013 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties.

Hansen’s thesis is entitled “Evolution of the viscosity of Earth’s upper mantle: Grain-boundary sliding and the role of microstructure in olivine deformation.” Murphy’s thesis is entitled “Thermoelasticity of hexagonal close-packed iron from the phonon density of states.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting, held 9–13 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Caitlin received her B.S. in environmental science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge in 2007 and her Ph.D. in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 2012. Caitlin is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution, in Washington, D. C., where she is performing high-pressure mineral physics and materials science experiments in collaboration with Yingwei Fei. Her research interests include the effects of impurities and defects on the thermodynamic, elastic, and electronic properties of minerals and metals found in the Earth’s deep interior.

Richard Kraus received the 2012 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origins and physical properties. Kraus’s thesis is entitled “On the thermodynamics of planetary impact events.” He was formally presented with the award at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting, held 3–7 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Kraus received his B.S. in physics from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2007 and an M.Phil. in physics from the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, U. K., in 2008. He completed his Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences under the supervision of Sarah T. Stewart at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., in 2013. His research interests include experimental measurements of the equation of state of planetary materials over a wide range of pressures and temperatures.

Zhicheng Jing and Daniel King have been awarded the 2011 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Jing’s thesis is entitled “Equation of state of silicate liquids.” King’s thesis is entitled “Stress-driven melt segregation and reactive melt infiltration in partially molten rocks deformed in torsion with applications to melt extraction from Earth’s mantle.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, held 5–9 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Jing received his B.S. in geophysics from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 2000. He completed his Ph.D. in geophysics under the supervision of Shun-ichiro Karato at Yale University, New Haven, Conn., in 2010. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. His research interests focus on the equation of state of silicate and metallic liquids using both theoretical and experimental approaches and its application to geological problems.

Zhicheng Jing and Daniel King have been awarded the 2011 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Jing’s thesis is entitled “Equation of state of silicate liquids.” King’s thesis is entitled “Stress-driven melt segregation and reactive melt infiltration in partially molten rocks deformed in torsion with applications to melt extraction from Earth’s mantle.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2011 AGU Fall Meeting, held 5–9 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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King received his B.S. in geology from Brown University, Providence, R. I., in 2003 and a M.Sc. in structural geology from the University of Vermont, Burlington, in 2006 under the supervision of Keith Klepeis. He completed his Ph.D. in rock and mineral physics under the supervision of David Kohlstedt at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His research interests include the mechanical behavior of the crust and mantle, rock physics, and earthquake mechanics.

Krystle Catalli and Marshall Sundberg have been awarded the 2010 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Catalli’s thesis is entitled “The effect of trivalent cation substitution on the major lower mantle silicates.” Sundberg’s thesis is entitled “Chemical interactions amongst phases during diffusion creep: Applications to the Earth’s upper mantle.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting, held 13–17 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Catalli received her B.S. in Earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2005. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. in high-pressure mineral physics under the supervision of Sang­Heon Shim at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge. Her research interests include the pressure-temperature stability of minerals at lower mantle conditions and the effect of composition.

Krystle Catalli and Marshall Sundberg have been awarded the 2010 Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Catalli’s thesis is entitled “The effect of trivalent cation substitution on the major lower mantle silicates.” Sundberg’s thesis is entitled “Chemical interactions amongst phases during diffusion creep: Applications to the Earth’s upper mantle.” They both were formally presented with the award at the 2010 AGU Fall Meeting, held 13–17 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Sundberg received his B.A. in geology from Carleton College, Northfield, Minn., in 2003 and an Sc.M. in geological sciences from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 2005. He completed his Ph.D. in geological sciences under the supervision of Reid Cooper at Brown University in 2009. He pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota with David Kohlstedt in 2010. He is currently a research geologist at the ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company in Houston, Texas.

Yonggang Yu and Nicholas J. Austin have been awarded the Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Yu’s thesis is entitled “Structure properties and phase transitions in earth minerals: A first principles study.” Austin’s thesis is entitled “Grain size evolution and strain localization in deformed marbles.” They were both formally presented with the award at the Mineral and Rock Physics focus group reception during the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif.

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Austin received a B.S. in geology from University of British Columbia in 2001 and an M.S. in rock mechanics/structural geology from University of British Columbia in 2003. He completed a Ph.D. in rock mechanics/structural geology under the supervision of Brian Evans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., in 2008 and is currently working on shale gas at Imperial Oil in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His research focuses on understanding the mechanical behavior of the crust and mantle, based on both laboratory and field observations.

Citation

Yonggang Yu and Nicholas J. Austin have been awarded the Mineral and Rock Physics Graduate Research Award, given annually to one or more promising young scientists for outstanding contributions achieved during their Ph.D. research. Recipients of this award are engaged in experimental and/or theoretical studies of Earth and planetary materials with the purpose of unraveling the physics and chemistry that govern their origin and physical properties. Yu's thesis is entitled “Structure properties and phase transitions in earth minerals: A first principles study.” Austin's thesis is entitled “Grain size evolution and strain localization in deformed marbles.” They were both formally presented with the award at the Mineral and Rock Physics focus group reception during the 2009 AGU Fall Meeting, held 14–18 December in San Francisco, Calif. Yu received his B.S. in physics from Tsinghua University in 2002, an M.S. in physics from University of Florida in 2004, and a Ph.D in high-pressure mineral physics under the supervision of Renata Wentzcovitch at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. His research interests include phase transitions in minerals. Austin received a B.S. in geology from University of British Columbia in 2001 and an M.S. in rock mechanics/structural geology from University of British Columbia in 2003. He completed a Ph.D. in rock mechanics/structural geology under the supervision of Brian Evans at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., in 2008 and is currently working on shale gas at Imperial Oil in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His research focuses on understanding the mechanical behavior of the crust and mantle, based on both laboratory and field observations.