Matthew Steele-MacInnis and James Watkins will receive the 2017 Hisashi Kuno Award at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, to be held 11–15 December in New Orleans, La. This early-career award recognizes “outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, or petrology.”  

It is my pleasure and honor to introduce Matt Steele-MacInnis, recipient of the Hisashi Kuno Award for 2017. It is appropriate for Matt to be recognized by the VGP section of AGU, as he has made significant contributions in volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology, as well as other areas. His research defines and quantifies fundamental chemical and physical processes and provides a sound basis for interpreting field- and laboratory-based observations in a broad range of geologic environments. Matt earned his B.Sc. (Honors) in Earth sciences (with a minor in math) from Memorial University in Newfoundland, where he received numerous honors, including the University Medal for Academic Excellence in Geoscience (Lou Visentin Award). At Virginia Tech, Matt was named an Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science Doctoral Fellow and, upon completion of his Ph.D., was honored with the Virginia Tech College of Science 2013 Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. During his tenure at Virginia Tech, Matt conducted experimental studies to determine the phase behavior of iron-bearing hydrothermal fluids, developed thermodynamically based methods to interpret volatile contents obtained from melt inclusion analyses, conducted theoretical studies to predict speciation and structural states of ions in solution, and developed numerous numerical methods to interpret fluid chemistry based on laser ablation inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and microthermometric analysis of fluid inclusions. Matt’s Ph.D. research, as well as collaborative research with other students and faculty at Virginia Tech and elsewhere, resulted in more than 20 publications in top international journals. Following his Ph.D. studies at Virginia Tech, Matt was awarded the prestigious Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship and conducted postdoctoral research at ETH in Zurich. In 2015, Matt joined the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona as a tenure-track assistant professor, and in August 2017 he returned to his native Canada to accept a faculty position at the University of Alberta.

—Robert J. Bodnar, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg

Thank you, Bob, for your kind words and support. I want to thank my nominators, the Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology section, and the Kuno Award Committee for bestowing this honor. I also want to thank many people who have guided me along my career path so far. John Hanchar at Memorial University was instrumental in guiding me toward graduate school and specifically toward joining Bob Bodnar at Virginia Tech. I owe much to Bob. He introduced me to the world of geologic fluids and fluid inclusions, but he also taught me how to be an effective scientist, and he conveyed an infectious enthusiasm and work ethic that drove me and my fellow students to push harder. I am indebted to my cohort of fellow grad students at Bob’s lab, too many to name. During my Ph.D., I spent 1 year as a visitor at GFZ Potsdam, where Christian Schmidt introduced me to experiments on fluids and melts. I was also extremely fortunate to have two exceptional postdoc advisors at ETH Zurich: Both Chris Heinrich and Thomas Driesner broadened my perspectives on geologic fluids immensely, from large-scale processes to microscopic-scale properties. Throughout this time, several early-career colleagues became regular collaborators and helped me branch out into different fields, especially Georg Spiekermann, Rosario Esposito, Joachim Reimer, and Kyle Ashley. And, of course, another regular and long-term collaborator also happens to be my wife, Pilar Lecumberri-Sanchez. I cannot express how grateful I am to Pilar for all of her support. It helps that we can discuss science both at work and at home, without arguing too much. —Matthew Steele-MacInnis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alb., Canada