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.

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, Tex.