2019 – Eiji Ohtani

2019 – Eiji Ohtani

Emeritus Professor at the Department of Earth and Planetary Materials Science, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai.

Eiji Ohtani was the first person to perform melting experiments on mantle minerals and rocks at pressures equivalent to those of the uppermost lower mantle by developing multi-anvil technology in late 1970s. He also invented techniques to measure density changes in molten rocks under very high pressures, thereby constraining the density contrasts between magmas and residual minerals in the deep mantle, which led to the concept of the deep magma ocean in the early Earth. He pioneered determinations of the stability of hydrous minerals in the mantle and subducting slabs, and the solubility of hydrogen in nominally anhydrous minerals. 

He also determined the phase and melting relations of the iron with light elements and metal-silicate partitioning under the pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth’s core to show that both O and Si can be candidates for the light elements in the outer core.

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2020 – Georges Calas

2020 – Georges Calas

Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences, University Pierre & Marie Curie-Paris VI (now Sorbonne Université) and a senior member of the University Institute of France.

George Calas has been a pioneer in the use of solid-state spectroscopy to understand the relationships between the properties of minerals and glasses and their structure at the atomic scale. His extensive work on glasses, and the determination of the unusual coordination of some elements, has served as the basis to understand structure-property relationships in glasses. His pioneering work on the role of element speciation in determining the concentration of transition elements and contaminants in the surficial environment is of critical importance to our understanding of the dispersal of toxic ions at the surface of the Earth, and to the development of remediation technologies. 

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2021 – Robert M. Hazen

2021 – Robert M. Hazen

Researcher at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, now the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Washington DC, USA, and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.

Robert (Bob) Hazen is recognized as an outstanding researcher for his impressive contributions to basic mineralogy, as well as its application and popularization. His research straddles the boundaries between mineralogy, chemistry, physics and biology and has led to fundamental breakthroughs in science. Prof. Hazen’s publication record extends over 50 years and contains incisive and original contributions to a variety of topics ranging from crystallography to crystal chemistry at high pressure and high temperature, astrobiology, mineral ecology and evolution. He played a pivotal role in initiating a major international collaborative research platform, the Deep Carbon Observatory, and his studies on mineral ecology and evolution are truly unique. He is unequaled in science communication and very active in science education in the broadest sense.

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2022 – Patricia Dove

2022 – Patricia Dove

Distinguished Professor and C.P. Miles, Professor of Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.

Patricia Dove has made long-term, outstanding scientific contributions to the field of mineralogical sciences with seminal works that changed the way we think about nucleation, dissolution and growth of minerals in Earth surface environments and beyond. Dove’s research excels in the quantitative approach and the mechanistic understanding of processes. Her key finding, that mineral dissolution and growth are manifestations of identical processes, has revolutionised research on minerals in biogeochemical systems. She has inspired scientists with innovative experimental techniques and fundamental methodological developments. She pioneered truly multidisciplinary science across mineralogy, chemical physics, and biology that has spread into the materials, engineering and medical disciplines.

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