MSA Distinguished Lecturer Program

Description

The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) offers schools that normally do not have the opportunity to hear talks about recent advances in mineralogy to chose among several topics offered by distinguished Lecturers. MSA pays travel expenses of the Lecturers if the host institution is responsible for local expenses, including accommodations and meals. Since its inception the Lecture Program of the Mineralogical Society of America has proven to be a great success. The varied and interesting lectures presented by MSA Distinguished Lecturers have been appreciated by students and faculty at many colleges and universities worldwide.

Beginning with the 2000-2001 Program, MSA expanded to include three lecturers, one of whom resides in Europe, and Lecturers were given in Europe as well as North America. MSA now can offer four lectures for the upcoming season, made possible by the generosity of long-time MSA member and Roebling Medalist, Dr. Peter R. Buseck. One of these lectures will focus on new directions in mineralogy and petrology. The second Buseck lecture will be on topics of interest to the general public. Because MSA membership is increasingly international, we now encourage all colleagues to request lecturers outside MSA’s traditional geographic venues.

Current Lecturers

Emily Chin
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California – San Diego, CA, USA
who will offer lectures on

Rheological cycles of damage and healing: How cratons become strong

and

Maximizing data extraction and integration with geochemistry using large area EBSD mapping


Juan Carlos de Obeso
Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
who will offer lectures on

Sparkling water and peridotite: Serpentinization and carbonation in the mantle wedge

and

Tortoise or Hare: Dissolution rates of plagioclase and implications for carbon storage


Corliss Kin I Sio
Dept. of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada
who will offer the Peter Buseck Public Lectures on

Enigmatic archives of magmatic processes: Decoding mineral zoning and melt inclusions with Fe-Mg isotopes

and

The silver lining of disequilibrium: Iron isotope perspectives on planetary petrology


Claire Zurkowski
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA
who will offer the Peter Buseck New Developments in Mineralogy and Petrology Lectures on

Mysteries beyond our solar system: Characterizing the mineralogical building blocks of multi-Earth mass exoplanets

and

Progress in high-pressure crystallography: Using synchrotron multigrain diffraction techniques to probe the petrology of Earth and planetary deep interiors

Instructions to Request an MSA Distinguished Lecturer

We invite you to request an in-person visit by an MSA Lecturer to your institutions for the coming academic year, which runs September 2023 through May 2024. MSA covers Lecturer travel to and from your institution, but host institutions are expected to cover local costs, including housing and meals. We also appreciate your help with local travel. We encourage requests from colleagues at primarily undergraduate institutions and institutions outside North America. Requests received before September 1, 2023, will be given priority. Late applications are welcome, but will be considered on a space-available basis.

In making your request please include:

  1. the name of a contact person at your institution for the months of August and September (when Lecturer schedules will be assembled), with contact e-mail addresses and phone numbers.
  2. the start and end dates of your institution’s academic semesters for 2023-2024.
  3. what day of the week you typically have department seminars; however, please note that because of travel and schedule constraints, it is often not possible to satisfy requests for tightly constrained dates or specific seminar days. Having some flexibility in your seminar day is helpful for hosting a speaker.
  4. list the four speakers in order of preference.
  5. list the closest airport to your institution, and the travel time to your institution.

If your institution is interested in requesting the visit of a MSA Distinguished Lecturer for 2023-2024, please contact the Lecture Program Administrator by the email listed below: Dr. David M. Jenkins

Binghamton University
Dept Geological Sci SI-267
4400 Vestal Parkway East
Binghamton NY 13902-6000
USA
Tel: +1 (607) 777-2736
Fax: +1 (607) 777-2288

e-mail: dmjenks@binghamton.edu

Past MSA Distinguished Lecturers

2022-2023 – Ananya Mallik (1) Understanding crust-mantle interaction on Earth using nitrogen and (2) How hot and wet is the Moon: Insights and challenges; Matthew Steele-MacInnis (1) The iron oxide-apatite problem, and the carbonate-sulfate solution and (2) Teaching a (very) old dog new tricks: Investigating the mysteries of Archean gold; Emily M. Stewart (1) The intertwined fates of lithospheric carbon and life on Earth and (2) The elephant passing through the room: How open system fluid flow dominates carbonate metamorphism; Jay Thomas (1) Out of (chemical equilibrium and into metamorphic depths: Mineral inclusions in garnets and elastic thermobarometers reveal true crystallization depths and (2) Truths, mirages, and shifting sands: Parting Earth’s curtains using tace element-in-mineral thermobarometers to reveal crystallization conditions of felsic rocks.

2020-2021 – Katherine Joy (1) The Moon as an archive of collisional processes in the Solar System: New views from Apollo samples and lunar meteorites. and (2) The lost meteorites of Antarctica: Searching for iron meteorites in the ice.Catherine A. Macris (1) Seconds after impact: Insights into impact processes from ultra-high. (2) Non-traditional stable isotope fractionation in non-traditional experiments: Melt evaporation in the aerodynamic levitation laser furnace. and (3) Laser beams and levitating lava orgs: Science fiction or real tools for studying planetary science?Shaunna M. Morrison (1) Driving Curiosity: Exploring Martian geology and habitability through mineralogy. and (2) Harnessing the complexity of minerals: Data-driven exploration of mineral relations and formation historiesArya Udry (1) What can we learn from Martian samples? and (2) How do we form granite on Mars without plate tectonics?

2019-2020 – Joshua M. Feinberg (1) Shining a light into the dark: How magnetic minerals in cave deposits illuminate the history of Earth’s magnetic field and past environmental change. and (2) Beyond paleomagnetism: What magnetic minerals tell us about pollution, biology, archaeology, and climate change.Jasquelin Peña (1) Nature’s most potent oxidants: Insights into manganese oxide structure-reactivity relationships. and (2) Translating molecular environmental science into water treatment solutions.Laura E. Waters (1) Why doesn’t continental crust evolve to its fullest potential? and (2) An evaluation of the effects of differentiation and degassing on magmatic oxidation states across tectonic settings.

2018-2019 – Allen F. Glazner (1) A Twenty-First Century View Of Plutons. and (2) Granite and Ice Cream: “Meltamorphism” and Crystal Growth at (Relatively) Low Temperatures.Caroline L Peacock (1) Mineralogical control on Earth’s climate. and (2) Mud mud glorious mud: How marine sediments help control the Earth system.Laura Wasylenki (1) What Ni isotopes can and cannot tell us about Earth’s mid-life crisis (Great Oxidation Event). and (2) Tungsten isotopes as a probe of reactions governing environmental transport of a toxic heavy metal.

2017-2018 – Zachary D. Sharp (1) The neglected middle son: 17O in paleoclimate. and (2) The primordial sources of Earth’s water.Clara S. Chan (1) The tiniest architects on Earth: how microbes make minerals. and (2) Using modern Fe-oxidizing microbes to unravel the evolutionary and geologic history of Fe oxidation.Jon Blundy (1) From Ores to Eruptions – rethinking the architecture of magmatic systems. and (2) Mount St. Helens Volcano – a natural laboratory paradise for petrologists.

2016-2017 – John M. Cottle (1) Taking The Pulse of the Himalaya: Insight Into Orogenesis From The Roof Of The World, (2) Geology In The Freezer: Subduction Dynamics Of The Ross Orogen, Antarctica, and (3) Rags to Riches: Rare Earth Element Mineralization In North AmericaCin-Ty A. Lee (1) Whole Earth oxygen and carbon cycling: climate and atmospheric composition through the eons and (2) Continent formation: from magmas to unconformities to the Cambrian explosionDaniela Rubatto (1) The tale of the tiny: petrology, geochemistry and geochronology of accessory minerals and (2) Fast and furious or slow and steady: rates of geological processes

2015-2016 – Richard W. Carlson (1) A History of Earth Formation and (2) Cenozoic magmatism in the Cordilleran: Driving geologic activity far removed from a plate boundaryRebecca M. Flowers (1) Just how stable are you? Exploring relationships between cratonic surface histories, kimberlite distributions, and mantle dynamics and (2) How old is the Grand Canyon? New thermochronology techniques help decipher the age of an iconic landscapeOlivier Bachmann (1) Supervolcanoes and their deposits: insights into the dynamics of large magma reservoirs and (2) Flow or blow: is it predictable?

2014-2015 – Bethany Ehlmann (1) The Earliest Aqueous Environments on Mars: Insights from Orbiting Infrared Spectrometers and (2) Roving Mars with CuriosityLutz Nasdala (1) Micro-spectroscopy: New opportunities to explore non-destructively minerals and their internal textures and (2) Natural radiation damage in minerals: What can we learn?

2013-2014 – Linda T. Elkins-Tanton (1) Five great mysteries from the first 10 Myr of the solar system and (2) Volcanoes and the Great Dying: The end-Permian extinctionNita Sahai (1) Silicate Mineral Implants Direct Stem Cells to Promote New Bone Formation and (2) Did Mineral Surface Chemistry Drive Evolution of Bacterial Extracellular Polymeric Substances?Richard Wirth (1) Nanoinclusions in minerals and rocks: small particles tell big stories and (2) FIB-TEM: Exploring Earth Materials with ions and electrons

2012-2013 – Julia A. Baldwin (1) Metamorphic phase diagrams and geochronology: You can’t have one without the other and (2) When the continental crust gets really hot: the petrology of ultrahigh temperature metamorphismMatthew J. Kohn (1) How to become a fossil: a geochemist’s guide and (2) Making the Himalaya: oozing, squashing or sliding? (posted on Youtube); Hans-Peter Schertl (1) A time machine for rocks: Cathodoluminescence microscopy of metamorphic and magmatic minerals and (2) How do mountains form? The critical evidence from small-scale petrological observation

2011-2012 – Ethan F. Baxter (1) Making a long Story Short: Evidence for Brief Pulses of Metamorphism, (2) Garnet: Tree Rings of Crustal Evolution, and (3) Multiple Paths, Multiple Sinks: The Untold Story of Noble Gas ThermochronologySumit Chakraborty (1) How long do geological processes last? -The long and the short of it and (2) What does the hop of an atom tell us about the motion of tectonic plates?Nancy Ross (1) Crystal Chemistry in the 21st Century and (2) Exploring Hydrogen Environments in Minerals with Neutrons

2010-2011 – David Dobson (1) How Juicy is the Earth’s Inner Core? Reconciling Mineral Physics and Seismological Observations and (2) Deforming the Earth: Runny Solids in the Deep MantleCraig E. Manning (1) In Deep Water: New Insights into Geologic Fluids in the Deep Crust and Upper Mantle and (2) How Efficient is Earth’s Volatile Recycling Program?Terry Ann Plank (1) Are the Oceans Shrinking? The Subduction Zone Water Cycle and (2) Hot and Cold Slabs: New Constraints from Mineral-Fluid Thermometers

2009-2010 – Katharine Cashman (1) Bubbles and Bangs: When are volcanic eruptions explosive?, (2) A Tale of Two Eruptions: Mount St. Helens 1980-1986 and 2004-2008 and (3) Hill of Fire: A modern look at the 1943-1952 eruption of Paricutin VolcanoDavid London (1) Gem-Bearing Pegmatites: Nature’s ‘Fancy’ Rocks and (2) The Experimental Foundations of Igneous PetrologyBruce Yardley (1) Mineral-fluid interactions and their consequences for the rheology of the continents and (2) What controls the chemistry of crustal fluids?

2008-2009 – Donald Dingwell (1) Explosive volcanism: a materials catastrophe and (2) Flow of magma: solving a rheological puzzleJennifer Jackson (1) Diamonds, Iron, and X-rays: Views into Earth’s Interior and (2) The Behavior of Iron-bearing Mineral Assemblages in Earth’s Lower MantleBruce Marsh (1) History of Geologic Exploration of Antarctica Magma in the Proposed Yucca Mountain Nuclear Repository and (2) Magmatic Mush Column Magmatism: McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

2007-2008 – Lukas P. Baumgartner (1) There is more to metamorphic petrology than phase diagrams: rates! and (2) How to assemble a proper intrusion and its contact aureoleDaniele J. Cherniak (1) Diffusion in minerals – from dinosaur teeth to the early Solar System and (2) Diffusion in zircon and other accessory phases – insights into Earth historySteven D. Jacobsen (1) Water cycling in the deep Earth: are the oceans just the tip of the iceberg? and (2) Unfamiliar landscape in the deep mantle: properties of Earth materials at very high pressures and temperatures

2006-2007 – Jane A. Gilotti (1) Diamond and coesite: forcing a new paradigm for continental collisions and (2) Clues to high pressure melting of metasedimentary rocks deep in the heart of mountain beltsTim K. Lowenstein (1) Tracking changes in the chemistry of ancient seawater: Mammal blood, Salt, and Sea Shells and (2) High pCO2 in the Eocene Greenhouse world from Green River Na-carbonatesStephen W. Parman (1) The history of the Earth written in helium and (2) Squinting at the Archean: komatiites and the thermal evolution of the Earth

2005-2006 – Penelope L. King (1) Examining volatiles in magmas using experiments, analyses and fieldwork and (2) Salts on Mars: what are they and how did they get there?Patrick J. O’Brien (1) From microscopic to macroscopic: how what we see in the microscope can be used to explain the formation of the Himalaya and (2) History written in stone: rocks as good, bad and indifferent eyewitnesses of geological processesThomas G. Sharp (1) Subduction through the transition zone: phase transitions, deep focus earthquakes and role of H2O and (2) High-pressure minerals in meteorites: deep-Earth minerals from the asteroid belt and collisions in the solar system

2004-2005 – Rodney Ewing (1) Impact of nuclear power on the environment and (2) Minerals and the safe immobilization and disposal of plutoniumJohn Hanchar (1) Simulating 100 million years of radiation damage in six years: Experiments on plutonium-doped minerals and (2) Trace elements and isotopes in accessory minerals as a window into crustal processesBernard Wood (1) The Earth under pressure: Minerals of its deep interior and (2) Square pegs in round holes: Why and how trace elements enter minerals.

2003-2004 – Bradley Hacker (1) Antipodal Fates of Continental Crust: Ultrahigh Pressure and Ultrahigh Temperature Metamorphism and (2) Why Subduction Zone Earthquakes? A Deep Relationship with Metamorphism ; Jill Dill Pasteris (1) Minerals: They Do a Body Good and (2) and Broadening our View of Minerals: Importance of Natural, Biological and Synthetic ‘Minerals’ David Vaughan (1) Minerals, Metals and Molecules: Ore and Environmental Mineralogy in the 21st Century and (2) Mineralogy: a Key to Sustaining the Health of Earth and Humanity.

2002-2003 – Thomas Armbruster (1) Natural zeolites: From structure to applications and (2) From construction kits and building blocks to complex mineral structures: How mineralogists learn what children knew for centuries ; Mickey Gunter (1) Health effects of inhaled dust: Idaho farmers, Libby miners, and New York firefighters and (2) The future of polarized light microscopy: Dim, bright, or extinct? ; Robert Hazen (1) Life’s Rocky Start: Possible roles of minerals in the origin of life and (2) Emergence: Minerals and the rise of complexity on the Archaean Earth.

2001-2002 – Robert Bodnar (1) The search for water and life in the solar system: Are we alone? and (2) Experimental geochemistry in a bottle: The use of synthetic fluid inclusions to teach and understand basic geochemical and petrological principles; Catherine McCammon (1) Diamonds are not forever: How compositional zoning in garnets can tell us why and Oxidation-reduction in the Earth: What old cars and the lower mantle have in common; Roberta Rudnick (1) Origin of Earth’s enigmatic continental crust and (2) When young rift meets old continent: Xenolith studies from the Tanzanian craton

2000-2001 – John Holloway (1) Mid-Ocean Ridge Black Smokers: Biogeochemical Cauldrons on the Seafloor and (2) The Upside-down World of Subduction Zones: Cold Slabs to Explosive Volcanoes; Rhian Jones (1) From stardust to asteroids: Meteorites and their record of solar system formation and (2) Martian meteorites: A sneak preview of samples from our neighbor planet; Ian Parsons (1) Self-organization in crystals: Feldspar weathering, and the origin of life and (2) Twelve orders-of-magnitude: How nanoscale features of minerals solve problems on the kilometer scale: the Klokken intrusion, South Greenland

1999-2000 – Michael Hochella (1) Mineral-environment interfacial processes: How the solid earth talks to the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphereand (2) Nuclear and Mining wastes:A scientific and societal look at lessons we have (and haven’t) learned and Tracy Rushmer (1) Cracks, fractures, and flow: Magmatic journeys through the Earth’s crust and (2) Earth’s core: The great unexplored inner space

1998-1999 – Donna Whitney (1) Petrology and global warming: How igneous and metamorphic processes change world climate and (2) Garnet Tectonics: What small grains reveal about large mountain belts and George Guthrie (1) Mineralogy in the Lung: Geochemical mechanisms of mineral-induced disease, and (2) London bridges falling down? Mineralogy may hold the key, and (3) Discovering the mysteries of fine-grained materials: TEM and XRD of opal and clay.

1997-1998 – David Bish (1) Mineral evolution in low-temperature environments, (2) The critical role of mineralogy in radioactive waste isolation, and (3) Better living through mineralogy: minerals and our environment and Carol Frost (1) The Archean Wyoming Province: nucleus of North America, and (2) Yellowstone Underground: granites and crustal growth.

1996-1997 – Rosalind T. Helz (1) How do we see into magma chambers? and (2) Glass Geothermometry: Using glass composition to quantify volcanic processes and Mark Ghiorso (1) Modern approaches to understanding magmatic evolution through computer modeling, and (2) Energetic simplicity: a thermodynamic tale about the rock forming minerals.

1995-1996 – William Carlson (1) The Cheshire Cat’s Grin: How metamorphic minerals record the tectonic evolution of the Llano Uplift, Texas, and(2) Rocks from the inside out: computed x-ray temography as a new petrologic tool and Peggy O’Day (1) Chemistry at the interfaces of minerals, water, politics and the environment, and (2) Using molecular tools to decipher surface reactions in model and natural systems.

1994-1995 – Jillian Banfield (1) From rocks to soil: chemical weathering and clay formation in the near-surface environment, and (2) Complex polytypism, regular interstratifications, defect microstructures, and layer silicate reaction mechanisms in serpentine-chlorite , and Peter Heaney(1) From atoms to agates: a fresh look at fine-grained silica, and (2) Looking at phase transtions with the electron microscope.

1993-1994 – John Brady (1) Why Walden Pond is an imperfect model for a lava lake, and (2) Marble-hosted talc deposits in SW Montana: Evidence for deep circulation of Proterozoic sea water and George Rossman (1) Using technology to modify the color of gemstones, and (2) The Global reservoir of H in anhydrous minerals.

1992-1993 – Jane Selverstone (1) Petrologic constraints on the tectonics of the eastern Alps, and (2) Fluid migration in subduction zones: inferences from high-pressure metamorphic rocks , and Sorena Sorensen(1) Metamorphism, metasomatism and migmatization in a paleo-subduction zone, and (2) Aquitectonics of ancient arc crust: a 100 Ma history of alteration in the High Sierra, and Alexandra Navrotsky(1) What minerals are in the Lower Mantle?, and (2) Earth Materials, environment and the role of mineralogy.

1991-1992 – Barb Dutrow (1) Dynamic fluids in metamorphic rocks; Monitoring metamorphism with tourmaline, and (2) Toward a solution of the staurolite enigma, and David Veblen (1) Rock-forming minerals at 1,000,000x: can we see atoms yet?, and (2) From mud to the mantle: an electron microscopic view of reactions in minerals.

1990-1991 – Darby Dyar (1) Troubles with geothermometry: the Fe3+ dilemma, (2) The new crystal chemistry of biotite, and (3) Metasomatism in the mantle: the xenoliths story, and Harry McSween(1) Chondritic meteorities and the origin of planets, and (2) Implications of aluminum-in-hornblende barometry for granites of the southern Applachian orogen.

1989-1990 – Edwin Roedder (1) Ancient fluids in crystals, clues to the geologic past, (2) A potpourri of recent fluid inclusion studies; and Fluid inclusion analysis – methods and limitations, and (3) Nuclear waster disposal – where do we put it? , and Mary Ellen Cameron(1) Petrogenesis of Tertiary calc-alkaline volcanics of the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, (2) Field, mineralogical and geochemical aspects of Tertiary alkaline intrusions of west Texas, and (3) Chemical and structural variations in apatite minerals: relevance in geological, health and material sciences.