Dr. Graham J. Hill, an internationally recognized expert in magnetotelluric imaging of magma reservoirs in volcanic regions, joined our institute at the beginning of this year. Graham Hill received his PhD in 2009 from the Monash University in Australia. Afterwards, he worked at GNS Science in Lower Hutt (New Zealand) and from 2015 at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch. His research has focused on imaging the location and size of magma reservoirs of volcanic systems such as Mount St. Helens (USA), Mount Tongariro (New Zealand) or Mount Erebus (Antarctica) using electromagnetic induction in the Earth (magnetotellurics). His extensive publication record includes the most prestigious journals, such as Nature Geoscience. On 17 January 2019 he was granted, as one of six awardees, the newly introduced award “Lumina quaeruntur” of the Czech Academy of Sciences. This award will enable building a new interdisciplinary team focused on research of the Katmai volcanic system in Alaska (USA), where the twentieth century’s largest measured volcanic eruption occurred in 1912.
Graham Hill and the director of the Institute of Geophysics, Aleš Špičák, along with the President of the CAS Eva Zažímalová, signing the Lumina quaeruntur award documents. Photo: Czech Academy of Science
Graham Hill onboard a Twin Otter aircraft heading for field work in the Transantarctic Mountains. Photo: The private archive of Mr. Hill