Yan Lavallee (M.S. SpSt 2003) Awarded Wager Medal

Yan Lavallée (M.S. SpSt 2003) was recently awarded the Wager Medal by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior. This is one of the most prestigious awards a mid-career scientist can receive in volcanology.

The Wager Medal honors the memory of Professor Lawrence Rickard Wager of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, who was born in 1904 and died in 1965. Professor Wager is best known for the discovery of the Skaergaard layered intrusion and the first detailed structural, mineralogical and petrological study of such intrusions. The medal is given every two years to a scientist up to 15 years after Ph.D acquisition, who has made outstanding contributions to volcanology, particularly in the eight-year period prior to the Award.

Yan gave a wonderful acceptance speech and spoke highly of his time in North Dakota as a springboard for his career.

Dr. Lavallée is the Chair of Volcanology/Magmatic Processes at the Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences at the University of Liverpool in the U.K.