Who We Are

Dr Chiara Cardaci

Dr Chiara Cardaci, geologist, with 21 years experience as geophysical researcher on volcanoes and expert in volcanic risk. She works on volcanic monitoring systems, volcanic surveillance, remote sensing analysis, volcanic hazard evaluations and mapping, real time evaluation of the impending risk and crisis scenarios to support civil protection decision-making. She joined the DPC in 2000, where her current role as deputy manager is to coordinate the Volcanic Risk Service. She is in charge of the national commission for the Emergency Plan of Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei Volcanic Caldera. She was involved as technical-scientific assessment officer in more than 10 national and international emergencies. She is currently involved in projects regarding to volcanic risk at national level (ASI Project) and European level (GMES - ERS: Eurorisk-Preview, Linker and Safer Projects).

Dr Servando de la Cruz

Dr Servando de la Cruz is Senior Research Professor, Institute of Geophysics, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and currently he is Scientist in Charge of the Department of Volcanology, head of the National Scientific Committee on Geological Risks of the Ministry of the Interior (Mexico), and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Popocat´epetl volcano. He was Research Director, of the National Center for Disaster Prevention CENAPRED-Ministry of the Interior Mexico, 1996-2000), member of the IAVCEI executive Committee (1987-1995), and recipient of the National Prize of Civil Protection in Prevention (Mexico, 2006). He is Professor in the Earth Sciences Graduate Programme at UNAM.

Prof Dr Donald Bruce Dingwell

Prof D B Dingwell is chair of Mineralogy and Petrology, Research Professor of Experimental Volcanology and currently Director of Earth and Environment. His interests are in the understanding of mechanistic sources of unrest signals in volcanic systems. He has been a leader in the field of experimental determination of magma properties and processes for 25 years. He is president-elect of the European Geosciences Union, Chair of Earth and Cosmic Sciences of the Academia Europaea and a member of the Adv. Grant Panel of the ERC. He has been the recipient of many national and international awards, prizes and distinctions including membership in the Royal Society of Canada, and the Academia Europaea. He became an ISI Highly Cited Researcher at age 46 and holds an ERC Advanced Grant.

Dr Jo Gottsman

Prof Joan Marti

Prof Joan Marti, Professor of Research at the CSIC, has 30 years of research experience. He is the current Secretary General of IAVCEI and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. He has co-ordinated several international and national volcanological research projects. He is expert on physical volcanology and modelling of volcanic processes. He co-ordinates the CSIC group and will actively participate in WPs 8, 3, 4 and 7.

Prof Dr Jurgen Neuberg

Prof Dr Jurgen Neuberg is Professor of Physical Volcanology and is leading a research group at Leeds focussing on monitoring, modelling and interpretation of volcanic seismic signals, and currently the Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics. He was the first to deploy an array of broadband seismometers on an active volcano in 1991 on Stromboli. Funded by several NERC and European grants he worked on volcanoes in Italy, Indonesia, New Zealand and Montserrat, and developed source models for volcanic seismic signals and tremor which have been widely accepted by the volcanological community. He chairs the IAVCEI/IASPEI joint commission on ”Volcano Seismology” and an equivalent group of the European Seismological Commission. Since 1997 he has been involved in the monitoring efforts of Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat, first through consultancy contracts with the BGS, since 2000 as a member of the Risk Assessment Panel (RAP), and since 2003 as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Through this involvement he has a thorough knowledge of the eruptive history of the volcano, the monitoring program through MVO and the wider scientific and social context.

Dr Paolo Papale

Dr Paolo Papale, Research Director at INGV Pisa, is the INGV national coordinator of the research line ”Physics of Volcanism” and of the coordinated theme ”Volcanological Databases”, and Responsible of the INGV functional unit ”Physico-mathematical modelling of volcanic processes”. He is President of the EGU (European Geosciences Union) Division GMPV: Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology and Volcanology, since 2007. He has been General Coordinator of the 2004-06 and 2007-09 Italian National Programs in Volcanic Hazard.

Dr Michel Pichavant

Dr Michel Pichavant is a CNRS Research Director at ISTO, Orléans, France. His research career has been concerned with quantitative studies of geological processes using mainly high temperature high pressure experimental approaches. His main focus has been on magmatic processes, having worked extensively on active andesitic volcanoes from the Antilles and on basaltic systems from south Italy, but he has also made contributions to hydrothermal processes, metallogeny and material science. He has had various responsabilities both at Orléans and at the French national scale. In parallel, at the European scale, he coordinated two EU research projects, including a TMR network about the in situ properties of silicate melts. He also contributed to promote experimental approaches in Europe, as the first organizer (1986, Nancy) and the organizer of the 1998 edition (Orléans) of the now well established EMPG (Experimental Mineralogy Petrology and Geochemistry) meetings. He has supervised more than 25 PhD students and 15 post-doctoral researchers, several now having high-level positions both in universities and in industry.

Dr Richard Robertson

Dr Richard Robertson is the Director of the SRC and a Geologist with extensive experience operating volcano and earthquake monitoring networks in the Caribbean. His research interest include volcanic hazards, risks and crisis communications. Dr. Roberts Watts, is a volcanologist whose main interests include the emplacement mechanisms and petrology of crystal-rich intermediate lavas, understanding the controlling factors related to the stability/instability of andesitic lava domes and the geophysical monitoring of active volcanoes.

Dr Mario Ruiz

Dr Mario Ruiz, Head of Seismology of the Instituto Geofisico is a volcano seismologist with a
Master’s degree from New Mexico Tech (USA), and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 1987 he has been working at the IGEPN, with special interest in seismic and infrasound signals from volcanoes such as: Pichincha, Sangay, Cerro Azul (Galapagos), Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, and Erebus (Antarctica). He currently teaches Seismology, Data Analysis, and Geophysics at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional and coordinates the graduate program in Hazard Risk Assessment.