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.
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.