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
Alison Rust is an igneous petrologist and physical volcanologist whose work has addressed some of the most basic processes that govern the generation, ascent, and eruption of magma. This includes the rheology of bubbly magma; how to determine deformation rate and history of magmas using microstructures; measurements and models of the permeability of pumice; degassing of magma and, in particular, the coupled degassing and brecciation of magmas; convection in magmas that have a yield strength; and the generation of seismic waves by flow through channels and conduits.
This range of topics is remarkable. More impressive, however, is the broad range of approaches she uses to answer these fundamental volcanological questions: lab experiments, analytical geochemistry, fieldwork, numerical modeling, and developing theoretical models. Especially noteworthy is her clever and insightful use of analog experiments to make the key link between observations and theory.
Moving beyond incremental advances in igneous petrology often requires quantitative integration of observations, experiments, and models coupled with a healthy dose of creativity and a willingness to question standard ideas. These are attributes Alison has demonstrated with her past work, and we look forward to more in the future.
—Michael Manga, University of California, BerkeleyResponse
It is an honor and a pleasure to receive the Kuno Award. There are, of course, so many people who deserve thanks, but I am especially indebted to my four enthusiastic advisors while I was a graduate student and postdoc: Kelly Russell, Michael Manga, Kathy Cashman, and Neil Balmforth. They were all very supportive but also gave me the space and freedom to make my own mistakes. I would like to thank Kelly for his contagious enthusiasm; Michael for his pithy, wise words; Kathy for bouncing ideas off everything; and Neil for teaching me things I didn’t know I wanted to know.
I have landed at the University of Bristol, which is a remarkable environment in which to continue to develop as a researcher, although sometimes it’s hard to get any work done with all the interesting discussions (thanks, Luca). I hope I can continue to find enjoyable collaborations and generate quality research worthy of the expectations of an early-career award.
—Alison Rust, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK