Katharine Cashman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Katharine Cashman
FRS MAE
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![]() Cashman in 2016
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Born |
Katharine Venable Cashman
19 July 1954 |
Alma mater | |
Awards | Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Volcanology |
Institutions | |
Thesis | Crystal size distribution in igneous and metamorphic rocks (1987) |
Doctoral advisor | Bruce Marsh |
Katharine Venable Cashman is a famous American scientist. She studies volcanoes. She is a professor of volcanology at the University of Bristol in the UK. She also used to be a professor at the University of Oregon in the USA.
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Becoming a Volcanologist
Katharine Cashman went to Middlebury College in Vermont. There, she earned a degree in Geology and Biology in 1976. She continued her studies in New Zealand. She went to Victoria University of Wellington. Later, she earned her PhD from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland in 1986. Her PhD research looked at how crystals form in volcanic rocks.
Career and Volcano Research
Professor Cashman started her career at Princeton University. She was an assistant professor there from 1986 to 1991. Then, she moved to the University of Oregon. She became a full professor there in 1997. In 2011, she moved to the University of Bristol in the UK. She received special funding for her research professorship.
What Katharine Cashman Studies
Katharine Cashman studies how magma (melted rock deep inside Earth) moves. She also researches how volcanoes erupt. She looks at how lava flows onto the Earth's surface. She has studied volcanoes on all seven continents. This means she has explored many different types of eruptions.
She is well-known for her work on bubbles and crystals in volcanic materials. She studies how these tiny parts affect how volcanoes behave. Her work covers many aspects of volcanoes. This includes their chemistry, physical actions, and even how they affect people. She has worked with all the volcano observatories in the US. She also advised the island of Montserrat about its volcanoes.
Her Research Methods
Her research combines several scientific fields. These include volcanology, which is the study of volcanoes. She also uses igneous petrology, which is the study of rocks formed from magma. She uses microscopy to look at tiny details. She also uses fluid dynamics to understand how liquids and gases move.
She often focuses on volcanoes that produce runny lava, like those in Hawaii. She studies how channels form in Hawaiian lava flows. She also researches how volcanic ash forms during eruptions. She is also interested in other types of volcanoes. This includes those with thicker lava, like Mount St. Helens.
Awards and Recognition
Katharine Cashman has received many important awards. In 2016, she was chosen to be part of the National Academy of Sciences. This is a very high honor for scientists in the US. Also in 2016, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in the UK. This is another very important scientific group.
She also holds a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is part of the Academia Europaea. She is also a member of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior.
In 2020, she received the Murchison Medal. This award came from the Geological Society of London.