Krafft medal

The silver Krafft Medal has been awarded since 2004 by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) - an association within the International Union for Geodesy and Geophysics . Their creation was announced by then IAVCEI President Robert Stephen John Sparks in the first newsletter of the year in 2002.

It honors the memory of the French volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft , who were killed by a pyroclastic current in 1991 when the ounce erupted in Japan . Both were trained geologists and geochemists and published about a dozen articles in scientific journals . But above all they worked as nature photographers and filmmakers. They achieved world fame within the geoscientific research community because they lived “according to the rhythm of the earth” and traveled to more than 150 eruptions - independent and without academic obligations. Over the decades, they have created a unique and meticulously compiled collection of well over 450,000 archived photographs and over 300 hours of film material. From the 1980s onwards, they increasingly devoted themselves to educating people about volcanic dangers. They also wrote several popular science books to bring volcanological knowledge to broader strata of the population, pushed ahead with the construction of an information center at Piton de la Fournaise and gave the impetus for the establishment of the "European Park for Volcanism" Vulcania in Saint-Ours .

The nomination criteria for the Krafft Medal are also formulated in accordance with the lifetime achievements of the namesake. According to the IAVCEI statutes, it is awarded to individuals for

"Exceptional services to volcanology, be it through service to the scientific community or to communities [localities] that are threatened by volcanic activity."

It also states that the award is intended for those people who have shown altruism , are dedicated to the humanitarian or applied side of volcanology, and have made selfless contributions to the volcanological research community.

On the front it shows a stylized volcano in the back and a portrait of the Kraffts and their names in the foreground under the words “IAVCEI”. The production of the medal was financially supported by the families of the Krafft couple and the “Volcan et Images” foundation, which manages the deceased's estate. The prize is awarded every four years on the occasion of the IAVCEI's general scientific assembly, which usually takes place in summer. The award will take place retrospectively for the previous year and the next time probably in mid-2017.

Laureates

year	Surname	nationality
2004	Thomas Edward Simkin	United States United States
Simkin (1933-2009) graduated from Swarthmore College with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1955 and received his master's degree in engineering geology from Princeton University in 1960 . There he received his doctorate in geology in 1965 . Two years later he joined the Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC) and would remain with the Smithsonian Institution throughout his scientific career. Between 1972 and 2003 he worked as a curator for petrology and volcanology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC , and subsequently as a senior advisor to the relevant department. Simkin has published several popular science books on volcanoes and was the lead author of This Dynamic Planet , an elaborate map of the world that shows volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters, and the lithospheric plates . He achieved great fame in his field of research mainly because he was one of the founders and until 1995 director of the Global Volcanism Program (GVP) - or the predecessor programs - of the Smithsonian Institution.
2008	Christopher G. Newhall	United States United States
Newhall earned a bachelor's degree in geology from the University of California, Davis in 1970. He then traveled to the Philippines several times for the Peace Corps . There he observed, among other things, the Mayon and taught geology at Aquinas University in Legazpi City . After returning to the United States, he completed his Masters in 1977. In 1980 he received his PhD from Dartmouth College . From 1977 Newhall worked for nearly three decades for the "Volcano Hazards Program" of the United States Geological Survey in Seattle before he left the agency in 2005. In 1991/1992 he was visiting professor at the University of the Philippines and from 1993 to 2011 he was also an affiliate professor of geosciences at the University of Washington . Between 2008 and 2013 he headed the volcanological working group at the Earth Observatory of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore . Newhall achieved world-wide fame through the elaboration of the volcano explosion index , which he developed in 1982 together with Stephen Self .
2012	Shigeo Aramaki	Japan Japan
The eruption of the Mihara in 1951 inspired Aramaki (* 1930) for volcanoes. He then studied geology at the University of Tokyo . In 1953 he earned his bachelor's degree and in 1961 he received his doctorate. Between 1957 and 1966 Aramaki worked several times at Pennsylvania State University ; then he was until 1991 professor at the Earthquake Research Institute of his alma mater . He then moved to Hokkaidō University and in 1994 to Nihon University , where he was retired in 2001 . He was visiting scholar at the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention (NIED) and from 2003 to 2014 Director of the Yamanashi Institute of Environmental Sciences . For decades, Aramaki persistently - and ultimately successfully - campaigned for the creation of hazard maps for all active volcanoes in Japan. He sat on numerous committees and scientific advisory boards and was also active internationally. For example, he advised the French government in 1976 in the wake of the Soufrière eruption in Guadeloupe . Between 1988 and 1993 he also served as President of IAVCEI.
2016	Marta Lucía Calvache-Velasco	Colombia Colombia
Calvache studied geology with Stanley N. Williams, among others, and did her Masters at Louisiana State University and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University . She works at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and is director of geohazards at Servicio Geológico Colombiano . In addition, she was scientific director of the volcano observatory in Pasto , managing director of the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO) and member of the IAVCEI sub-committee for crisis protocols. Her career began in 1985, when she belonged to the group of those scientists who, after intensive investigations, attached great danger potential to the Nevado del Ruiz - shortly before its devastating eruption. Calvache then carried out further research on this volcano and made great contributions to geoscientific risk analysis there and on other mountains.