William I. Rose received the Bowen Award, presented by the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology Section at the 2002 Fall Meeting in San Francisco, California, last December.
Citation
“I am happy to be able to introduce Bill for this well-deserved honor. I’d first like to thank Bill’s colleagues who wrote him such strong letters of support: Fred Anderson (University of Chicago, the winner of last year’s Bowen Award); Steve Sparks (University of Bristol, Great Britain); Fred Prata (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia);Tom Casadeval (U.S. Geological Survey); Jon Fink (Arizona State University); and Hugo Delgado (National University of Mexico).
“I would like to summarize Bill’s many accomplishments, in research, collaborative efforts, and student outreach. His earliest professional work extended his graduate studies in gas and ash emission studies in Central America, and expanded to Indonesia, Washington, Hawaii, and Antarctica. In the 1980s, he began developing an interest in the potential aircraft hazards from volcanic clouds, years ahead of any serious scientific efforts towards this issue. Bill was one of the first in volcanology to embrace satellite data to study volcanic emissions and is a well-recognized leader in the field.
“With more than 150 published papers on volcanic studies, Bill has investigated multispecies and regional gas measurements of volcanic emissions, ash/aerosol interactions, aircraft hazards, distal ash fallout patterns, quantitative retrievals of ash particles, and detection of ice in volcanic clouds. He developed the first methodology to use infrared satellite data for quantitative retrievals of ash particles, size, and cloud mass: his ground-breaking work with his graduate student Shimeng Wen in 1994 formed the basis for current methods of infrared retrieval of ash particles.
“His past 5 years of accomplishments include his leadership toward merging multi-sensor retrievals of volcanic clouds, deriving simultaneous data of ash, aerosol, and gas species. He has led efforts to develop new monitoring, and analytical tools with a variety of sensors, and has published valuable syntheses of remote sensing studies. These retrievals have produced improved understanding of volcanic cloud/ atmosphere interactions, quantitative measures of volcanic cloud compositions and evolution, and advancement of a wide variety of remote sensing tools for volcanologists.
“His ties to Central America are perhaps the strongest of any U.S. volcanologist. Since his graduate work in the late 1960s, he has made annual trips to Central America, particularly Guatemala, and has published over 50 papers on Central American volcanology. For the past 3 years, he has led collaborative field excursions to Guatemala and El Salvador. In 1999, he graduated a master’s student, Carlos Pullinger, from El Salvador, who is now a leader in El Salvador’s natural hazards mitigation program. He brought one of Guatemala’s leading volcanologists to Michigan Tech this past year, Oto Matías, to complete his bachelor’s degree in geology. This fall, he hosted Dr. Hugo Delgado (Mexico) and Dr. Jose Viramonte (Argentina) as Visiting Scholars.
“Bill served as department head at Michigan Tech from 1990 to 1998. He led the development of Michigan Tech’s Remote Sensing Institute in 1998, spanning eight departments and over 40 researchers on campus, twice serving as director. He initiated a Remote Sensing Minor program for undergraduates as a means to attract diverse students to the field of remote sensing. Through an NSF International Travel Grant, he led a dozen international and American graduate students for 2 weeks to the IAVCEI Bali meeting in 2000, via Hawaii and Pinatubo.
“In 2001, Bill organized and hosted the Volcanic Clouds Workshop at Michigan Tech, attracting nearly 50 researchers from 11 countries, six of the nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs), nine universities, and several government meteorological and volcanological organizations. Sponsorships from NASA and NSF secured by Bill helped support the meeting, and particularly the 17 student attendees. He is organizing the second meeting for summer 2003.
“In summary, Bill has made significant contributions to the field in research, in service, and in education. He has trained and mentored dozens of students, and has made many contributions to the growth of volcanological sciences, hosting field trips and workshops and developing funding opportunities targeted specifically for students. His work in geosciences has been abundant and far-reaching, and he is a clear leader in volcanology and remote sensing. His leadership skills together with his enthusiasm have brought together diverse groups of scientists and operational workers for the betterment of volcanology. Bill Rose is a very deserving recipient of this year’s Bowen Award.”
—Gregg Bluth, Michigan Technological University, HoughtonResponse
“Thanks to Gregg Bluth and Fred Anderson for the introduction, and to Becky Lange and the Bowen Award Committee. The Bowen Award is a great honor, but it seems an extravagance given that my work is great fun, takes me to the world’s beautiful places repeatedly, and allows me to work with optimistic, smart, and talented young people. The Bowen Award truly shines brighter than many other awards, especially in my case. One award I got earlier was called the ‘Peter Principle Disorganization Award’ from a group called the Association of Derelicts and Slovenly Slobs, which I later found out included Jim Vallance, Deb Schueller, and Jim Paces. This is way better!
“I want to mention some of the many people I have met in and around volcanoes who have inspired me. In 1966, Dick Stoiber saw me at Dartmouth and asked what I’d do after graduation, 6 weeks away. I knew I didn’t want to visit Vietnam. Dick said I could work climbing seven Central American volcanoes. He gave me books and a student deferment. Dick was a dauntless man who had such passion that you had to work hard for him. He explored all the possibilities of being a senior professor. Other inspiring professors, Bob Decker and Bob Reynolds, and fellow students Al Eggers, Mike Carr, and Paul Taylor were significant.
“Next I moved to Houghton, a hard-rock town, where my family was happy and where I have creative colleagues and students. Michigan Tech tries to be a place where engineers are respected and valued. One result of the elevation of engineers is that non-engineers bond. Disciplinary boundaries are low. Engineers have wonderful equipment in clean, well-organized labs that are underutilized and can be borrowed by scientists with strange applications. My colleagues at Michigan Tech now include Gregg Bluth, Matt Watson, Alex Kostinski, Jimmy Diehl, Rich Honrath, Raymond Shaw, and Will Cantrell.
“I worked in Central America since Dartmouth days. In 1973–1975, Sam Bonis made huge collections of ashes from Fuego, and with these I worked with Fred Anderson and Steve Self. I learned Fred’s thoughts about gases, subduction zones, and melt inclusions, and worked with Laurel Woodruff. In 1978, I went to NCAR to learn about the atmosphere. Working under Paul Crutzen and Dick Cadle and with Bill Zinzer, we did a series of volcano aircraft samplings. I met Raymond Chuan, Bill Zoller, and Barry Huebert.
“The 1980s were great! Mount St. Helens in 1980–1982 amounted to the best learning experience of my life. We had meetings with 30 to 80 scientists daily discussing real-time data. I met Rick Hoblitt, Don Swanson, Kathy Cashman, and many more. In January 1983, led by Servando de la Cruz-Reyna, I went with Bill Zoller and Tom Casadevall into the newly-formed, H2S-rich crater of El Chichon. Then to Toba Caldera with Craig Chesner and George Walker and to Erebus and White Island with Phillip Kyle. Next it was Merapi and Augustine with Bob Symonds, and Costa Rica and Chile with Bob Andres. Kilauea began its current eruption in 1983, and I learned from Paul Greenland and Torrie Chartier, whose work at HVO was followed by a successful career as head of an all-woman diamond exploration company and a bio in Worth Magazine.
“In the late 1980s, I got into satellite-based remote sensing. Steve Self, Lori Glaze, and Rick Holasek helped—at first we knew almost nothing! Grant Heiken and others at Los Alamos triggered an aircraft mission to Augustine volcano, and I got lots of data from Gary Hufford. Shiming Wen made it possible for me to begin to understand radiative transfer. Dave Schneider really loved remote sensing from the beginning and always had snacks handy. The NASA EOS volcanology team headed by Pete Mouginis-Mark allowed a great expansion of colleagues who shared an interest in remote sensing: Peter Francis, Joy Crisp, Andy Harris, Arlin Krueger, Fred Prata, Vince Realmuto, Howard Zebker, and Luke Flynn. It lasted 12 years, and this networking supported an army of students. This triggered a great interdisciplinary experiment in a shared remote sensing lab where a diversity of students Dave Schneider, Judy Budd, Drew Pilant, and Mike Dolan worked together and truly taught each other.
“I undertook an administrative career as department chair. I used Stoiber’s lessons here: spend all the money ASAP and ask for more; hire new people as often as possible; keep a lot of balls in the air and they’ll be confused, etc. I conclude that no one should do that job for too long. Then I spent a rejuvenating year-long leave at Bristol, which has become the world’s leading volcanology program. Steve Sparks is a great leader, and he put me in an office with Oleg Melnik, Oded Navon, Eliza Calder, and Anne Marie Lejeune. I visited Montserrat and the Bristol field class in Santorini and worked with Gerald Ernst. I also met Clive Oppenheimer, Hans Graf, and Christiane Textor.
“Most recently, I have facilitated increased work in El Salvador and Guatemala and local colleagues in those countries including Carlos Pullinger and Otoniel Matías. We have done workshops on remote sensing of volcanic clouds and eruptions, where I met George Stephens, Andrew Tupper, Rene Servrandrx, Jose Viramonte, and many more.
“It is time to shut up, but I also mention my family—Nanno, Chris, and Jason, who put up with a lot of absences during my many great field trips and loved me anyway. And I thank again my many students that I haven’t mentioned yet, but haven’t forgotten—Mike Conway, Gari Mayberry, Bill Capaul, Dave Delene, Sid Halsor, Tony Longo, Paula Peterson, Colleen Riley, Greg Hahn, Gordon Keating, Gerardo Carrasco, Glen Johns, Barry Green, John Graf, Emily Constantine, Roger Barlow, Darrell Sofield, Dennis Martin, Paul Kimberly, Tianxu Yu, and John Drexler. Students have always taught me more than I have taught them. Rick Wunderman stands out as the student who taught me most, especially that the journey is more important than the destination. Thanks again, and cheers to all.”
—William I. Rose, Michigan Technological University, Houghton