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.
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.