I like to work with graduate students who want to do research in
new directions, especially non-traditional ones. A lot of my students
are now working on research that applies remote sensing to
volcanoes and volcanic clouds, but I am also interested in students
who want to mitigate volcanic hazards in creative ways. Volcanology
can use people with diverse backgrounds. I like to work with students
who want to "cross over" from a non- geological department.
Currently our work is supported by NASA and NSF, and typically I like
to have 2-3 new graduate students each year. We are building new
programs which encourage interdisciplinary study, such as the
Atmospheric Sciences program.
We also have Peace Corps
program for master's degree candidates devoted to the Mitigation of
Geological Natural Hazards. This PC program looks for 10 new students
each year, and I am one of several advisors for it. A list of
students who have worked with me in the past is here
on this website
Research Interests.
I am
interested in how volcanoes work, and have focussed my research on
volcanic gases, volcanic domes, volcanic ash and the atmosphere and
volcanic hazards. Regionally I have worked most in Central America.
Currently we focus on Guatemala and El Salvador. Michigan Tech has a
great interdisciplinary science team called the Remote
Sensing Institute. Since 1986 RSI has developed a remote sensing
laboratory, called the Laboratory of Atmospheric Remote Sensing
(LARS) where many students work together, the majority on volcanic
hazards and volcanic clouds. A major focussed goal is to make a
contribution to the problem of volcanic cloud hazards to aircraft.
The Peace Corps program lets us do social geology--to study
how people in varoius cultures perceive natural hazards. This work
is new and very interesting--likely to change the ways we try to
mitigate hazards. I sometimes work with students whose interests
diverge from my own, and I like doing this because building
independence and self sufficiency and trying something new is
incredibly rewarding in the end ( & hard while you're doing it!).
I really want students to cross over from another discipline for
graduate research in earth sciences, because the education in many
other areas such as electrical engineering, physics, computer
science, meteorology, groundwater engineering, atmospheric science,
anthropology, scientific communications, etc, all have a great deal
to contribute to volcanology.
If you Are interested: How
to contact me