A Lancaster University scientist is to receive a prestigious medal for his achievements in the field of volcanology.

Emeritus Professor Lionel Wilson is to be awarded the Thorarinsson Medal by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior (IAVCEI), a learned society dedicated to research in volcanology.

Honouring the memory of pioneering Icelandic scientist Professor Sigurdur Thorarinsson, the Thorarinsson Medal is the most senior medal of the IAVCEI and is awarded every four years to a scientist ‘of outstanding distinction who has made fundamental contributions to research in volcanology’.

Professor Wilson, who joined Lancaster University in 1970, first became interested in studying volcanic processes after the recognition of lava flows on the Moon from images taken while searching for potential landing sites for the Apollo lunar landings in the 1960s.

His early work focused on large-scale explosive volcanic activity on Earth, and later his focus shifted to studying planetary volcanism.

The citation for Professor Wilson’s medal says: “The common theme through most of Professor Wilson’s work has been that studying volcanic processes on planetary bodies other than Earth, where the environmental boundary conditions such as atmospheric pressure and acceleration due to gravity are very different, forces us to start from first principles to understand the underlying physics. The same eruptive process acting in differing environments can produce markedly different eruptive products, and so eruptions should be categorised by process not product.”

From 1990 to 2016 Lionel was the editor, later co-editor, of the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. This service to the international volcanology community was recognised by IAVCEI in 2023 with an Honorary Life Membership award.

Professor Wilson continues to be involved in analysing data from current planetary missions.

He said: “I am deeply honoured to receive this award of the Thorarinsson Medal. I met Sigurdur Thorarinsson only once, very early in my career and very late in his, during a field trip in Iceland, but his reputation as the father of Icelandic volcanology was well known to me and his work was and continues to be an inspiration to all geoscientists.

“No scientist works in isolation, and I feel that this award also reflects the support of my colleagues here at Lancaster over the last 55 years, of our many ex-students who have made their own careers in volcanology, and of the international collaborators with whom I have had the pleasure of working.”

Professor Crispin Halsall, Director of Lancaster Environment Centre, said: “This is a tremendous award that recognises Professor Wilson’s outstanding leadership in the field of planetary volcanism.”