Congratulations to all those that entered the GeoPRISMS Student Prize. Of all the quality entries, this page recognizes those that were most highly rated by the judges. Many of the outstanding presentations are available to download via the links from this page.
The GeoPRISMS Prize accepts international entries from any student who can establish a topical link between their research and a stated aim of a GeoPRISMS Program Initiative. To date, winners and honorable mentions have come from both the U.S. and abroad and have gone to around the same number of male and female entrants, and poster and oral presentations.
Thank you to the Judges and the students who entered, whose efforts allow the GeoPRISMS Student Prize to take place.
Poster Presentation Winner
Dan Rasmussen – LDEO, Columbia University
Run-up to the 1999 sub-plinian eruption of Shishaldin Volcano unveiled using petrologic and seismic approaches
Coauthors: Terry A. Plank, Diana C. Roman, Amanda C. Lough, Pete L. Stelling, Robert J. Bodnar, Erik H. Hauri
From the Judges: “Daniel gave a really terrific presentation and enthusiastically provided thoughtful answers to questions from audience around his poster” “true integrative combination of petrological, geochemical and geophysical data” “excellent presentation, with logical flow throughout, integrating many different types of observations to identify precursory signals in the run up to a well studied eruption”
Oral Presentation Winner
Suzanne Birner – Stanford University
Records of upper mantle oxygen fugacity gleaned from high-density sampling of basalts and peridotites at ultraslow ridges
Coauthors: Elizabeth Cottrell, Jessica Warren, Katherine Kelley, Fred Davis
From the Judges:“Suzanne’s talk was polished and elegant” “She presented a geological mystery (the observation that ridge basalts tend to record higher fO2 than ridge peridotites) which she has resolved for rocks sampled at the Southwest Indian Ridge” “This was my favorite talk of the meeting!”
Honorable Mention
Joshua Davis – Institute for Geophysics – UT Austin
Cold rocks make more melt: Numerical models of melt generation during continental extension
Coauthors: Luc Lavier
From the Judges:“Very organized and well-practiced talk” “Joshua was able to clearly explain the interesting and counterintuitive results of his research” “The rifting simulations were impressive and Joshua’s narration was seamless and confident.”
Honorable Mention
Helen Janiszewski – LDEO, Columbia University
Shoreline-crossing shear-velocity structure of the Juan de Fuca Plate and Cascadia Subduction Zone from surface waves and receiver functions
Coauthors: Jim Gaherty, Geoff Abers, Haiying Gao
From the Judges:“Helen is very knowledgable about her research” “The project represents an important and novel contribution to imaging the structure of Cascadia, integrating onshore and offshore observations” “She really knows her material and is very clearly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of her work”
Honorable Mention
Hannah Mark – MIT-WHOI Joint Program
Seismic coupling at divergent plate boundaries from rate-and-state friction models
Coauthors: Mark Behn, Jean-Arthur Olive, Yajing Liu
From the Judges: “Extremely well constructed and delivered presentation” “Elegant explanation of the basis of this modeling study and the overall controls on seismic coupling” “[…] findings have implications for fault behavior associated with continental rifting”
Honorable Mention
Sarah Jaye Oliva – Tulane University
Deciphering the role of fluids in early stage rifting from full moment tensor inversion of East African earthquakes
Coauthors: Cindy J. Ebinger, Steven W. Roecker, Derek B. Keir, Donna J. Shillington, Patrick Chindandali
From the Judges: “Sarah did a really nice job of explaining her work. It was also great to see how well she understood her methodology, and how much she is thinking about how to improve the work via more robust discussion of errors” “Sarah is very smart, explains her research extremely well and thinks “outside the box” for her interpretations” “Nice analysis and presentation of poster”.
