Sir Steve Sparks | |
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Born | 15 May 1949 75) | (age
Alma mater | Imperial College London |
Awards | Bigsby Medal (1985) Murchison Medal (1998) Arthur Holmes Medal (2005) Thorarinsson Medal (2008) Wollaston Medal (2011) Vetlesen Prize (2015) Royal Medal (2018) |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Bristol |
Doctoral advisor | George P. L. Walker |
Notable students | Jonathan Blundy, Claire Horwell, Jenni Barclay |
Sir Robert Stephen John Sparks, CBE , FRS (born 15 May 1949) is Chaning Wills Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. He is one of the world's leading volcanologists and has been widely recognised for his work in this field.
Sparks [2] is a graduate of Imperial College, where he first completed a B.Sc. (1971), and then a PhD (1974) under the supervision of George P. L. Walker. He was subsequently a Research Fellow at Lancaster University (1976–1978), a NATO postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate school of oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA (1976–1978), and then lecturer at University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences (1978–1989), where he was also a Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He took up the Chaning Wills Chair of Geology at the University of Bristol in 1989. Sparks has held a number of distinguished visiting positions at other universities, including a period as Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at California Institute of Technology in 1987, and as an Edward Bass Scholar [3] at Yale University (2006–2007).
Sparks has been hugely influential in the fields of both volcanology and igneous petrology. He has published over 300 papers, which have been cited more than 10,000 times, and is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. [4] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1988 and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1998.
Sparks has a distinguished record of service to the geological community. He was President of the Geological Society of London from 1994 to 1996, [5] President of IAVCEI from 1999 to 2003, [6] and is President-elect of the VGP section of the American Geophysical Union for 2009. Sparks was chair of the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise Panel for Earth Sciences. [7]
He became chair of ACME in 2012.
Sparks was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to Environmental Sciences and a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to Volcanology and Geology. [8] [9] In 2018 he received the Royal Medal. [10]
A volcanologist, or volcano scientist, is a geologist who focuses on understanding the formation and eruptive activity of volcanoes. Volcanologists frequently visit volcanoes, sometimes active ones, to observe and monitor volcanic eruptions, collect eruptive products including tephra, rock and lava samples. One major focus of inquiry in recent times is the prediction of eruptions to alleviate the impact on surrounding populations and monitor natural hazards associated with volcanic activity. Geologists who research volcanic materials that make up the solid Earth are referred to as igneous petrologists.
Harry Hammond Hess was an American geologist and a United States Navy officer in World War II who is considered one of the "founding fathers" of the unifying theory of plate tectonics. He published theories on sea floor spreading, specifically on relationships between island arcs, seafloor gravity anomalies, and serpentinized peridotite, suggesting that the convection in the Earth's mantle is the driving force behind this process.
George Patrick Leonard Walker was a British geologist who began his career studying mineralogy and later made significant contributions to volcanology. He was widely regarded as one of the pioneers of modern quantitative volcanology.
Herbert Eric Huppert is a British geophysicist. He has been Professor of Theoretical Geophysics and Foundation Director, Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, at the University of Cambridge, since 1989 and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, since 1970.
The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) is a learned society that focuses on research in volcanology, efforts to mitigate volcanic disasters, and research into closely related disciplines, such as igneous geochemistry and petrology, geochronology, volcanogenic mineral deposits, and the physics of the generation and ascent of magmas in the upper mantle and crust. It is one of eight constituent associations of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG).
Sigurdur Thorarinsson was an Icelandic geologist, volcanologist, glaciologist, professor and lyricist. He is considered a pioneer in the field of tephrochronology, and he made significant contributions in many areas of geology, especially volcanology and glaciology, both in Iceland and abroad.
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Ian McDougall was an Australian geologist and geochemist.
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Katharine Venable Cashman is an American volcanologist, professor of volcanology at the University of Bristol and former Philip H. Knight Professor of Natural Science at the University of Oregon.
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Claude Jaupart is a French geophysicist and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
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Stephen Self is a British volcanologist, best known for his work on large igneous provinces and on the global impacts of volcanic eruptions.
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