Katharine V. Cashman

Biosketch

Katharine Cashman received her doctorate from The Johns Hopkins University in 1986, taught at Princeton University from 1986-1991, then moved to the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Oregon, where she held the positions of Associate Professor (1991-1997), Professor (1997-2014), Philip H. Knight Distinguished Professor of Natural Sciences (2007-2014) and Department Head (2007-2010). She moved to the University of Bristol in 2011 on a 3-year AXA Research Chair in Volcanology. In 2014 this was converted to an AXA Endowed Chair at the University of Bristol. She is currently affiliated with the University of Oregon as a Research Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. Kathy Cashman has studied volcanoes on six of the seven continents, has worked at three USGS volcano observatories, and has served on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Soufriere Hills eruption on the island of Montserrat. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Royal Society, and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academia Europaea, and the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been a Distinguished Lecturer for the Mineralogical Society of America and the Mineralogical Society (UK); she has also been awarded the Bowen Award from the Volcanology, Geochemistry and Petrology section of the AGU, an Honorary Doctorate in Science from Middlebury College, VT, and a Wolfson Research Merit Award from the Royal Society.

Research Interests

Kathy Cashman is a volcanologist who studies volcanic systems from the magma reservoir to the Earth's surface using the combined tools of field observations and measurements, sample analysis for chemical and physical characteristics, laboratory experiments and theoretical models. The most distinctive aspect of her work is her use of all constituent phases of volcanic samples (glass, crystals and vesicles) to quantify the kinetics of phase transformations and relate these to temporal changes in the physical properties of volcanic materials. She has used this approach to study the emplacement of lava flows, conditions of magma storage and eruption, and generation of volcanic ash. One example is the combined use of melt inclusion and textural analysis to address conditions of magma storage and ascent, generally, and the role of decompression-related degassing more specifically. This work highlights the critical role of shallow water loss on crystallisation of both groundmass and phenocryst phases. From a volcanological perspective, Cashman has used these data to show that feedbacks among processes of magma ascent, degassing, crystallisation and magma rheology have important implications for both patterns of precursory behaviour and controls on volcanic eruption styles. Her work has had significant impacts in the fields of igneous petrology, physical volcanology, and magmatic processes, and has stimulated new areas of research in experimental petrology and volcano studies.