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.
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 Dufec, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta