The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group aims to facilitate discussion, in an inclusive environment, amongst researchers with interests in volcanology, igneous petrology, geochemistry and allied fields. We hold a large annual winter meeting, workshops and field trips, and keep in regular contact with the community via social media and a newsletter. Recent news and events are also posted below.
Mike has been an active member of the VMSG community for many years and amongst his substantial and interdisciplinary academic contributions to volcanology he has also been a strong advocate for open science, equitable collaboration and in supporting early career researchers globally – all of which are strongly in the spirit of the award.
Mike will be receiving the VMSG Award at our annual conference, which this year will be held in Dublin, where he will be presenting a keynote lecture. Please join us if you can to celebrate his contributions and achievements!
As part of our 60th Anniversary, VMSG shall be holding a series of volcanology seminars across 2024. We’ve just released initial details of these events (the first of which will be on 3rd April!), along with the location of our 2025 meeting, to our Upcoming Events page. Stay tuned for further updates!
The VMSG Student Reps and Committee will once again be hosting a PhD application and interview Q&A session. We will be sharing our tips and experiences, as well as hopefully some more expert advice. The session is open to all, from First Years to Masters students. A link to the session shall be emailed out.
Our January 2024 meeting is coming up. All details regarding registration, workshops, conference fieldtrips etc can be found using the events menu above, or simply clicking here!
The VMSG Student Reps and Committee will be hosting a PhD application and interview Q&A session. We will be sharing our tips and experiences, as well as hopefully some more expert advice. The session is open to all, from First Years to Masters students.
Follow the Zoom link on Tuesday the 29th of November at 3pm.
The abstract submission and registration for VMSG2023 has been extended and the abstract submission deadline is now closed! More information on scientific programme and important dates can be found on the VMSG2023 website.
Information on Conference Workshops can be found on our Upcoming Events Page here.
A reminder that expression of interest for the outreach day at Natural History Museum on 7thJanuary 2023 has now closed (deadline: Friday 31stOctober). You can find the form to express your interest here: https://vmsg-2023.org/home/outreach/
VMSG2023 will take place in Bloomsbury, London, on 4th – 6th January 2023, with a day of post-conference outreach activities at the Natural History Museum, in collaboration with the NHM Science Communication Team, on 7th January. VMSG 2023 will be in hybrid format: delegates are welcome to attend both in-person in London and through virtual means. The meeting is organized by the local organizing committee Volcanologists of London (VoL), an informal group made up of people from the Natural History Museum, Birkbeck, University of London, UCL, Kings College London and Imperial College.
The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group are recruiting a new Student Representative to join the VMSG Committee. More than one applicant has applied for the position and so this requires a vote by members of the VMSG community (self identifying) to elect their chosen candidate to the committee.
Please carefully read the supporting statements provided by each applicant: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kdMORKdIPRQh9qoqSspr98xmEtT79Siz/view?usp=sharing
and review the ‘Understanding Unconscious Bias’ video by the Royal Society before placing your vote: https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2015/unconscious-bias/
Please complete the following google form to place your vote (you may vote only once):
https://forms.gle/eodXDWBo8o8Y8eBZ7
The voting closes 5pm Friday 7th October.
Best of luck to all the candidates!
The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group are recruiting a new Awards and Bursaries Officer to join the VMSG Committee. More than one applicant has applied for the position and so this requires a vote by members of the VMSG community (self identifying) to elect their chosen candidate to the committee.
Please carefully read the supporting statements provided by each applicant: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18X7TxxPRveNkL4xyzRwqYXlaeNrL6iwy/view?usp=sharing
and review the ‘Understanding Unconscious Bias’ video by the Royal Society before placing your vote: https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2015/unconscious-bias/
Please complete the following google form to place your vote (you may vote only once): https://forms.gle/X1wSfpC8gFPeQ7zK9
The voting closes 5pm Friday 23rd September.
Best of luck to all the candidates!
We are now accepting applications for the following vacancies to join the VMSG Committee:
Please contact the VMSG secretary for more information on either role.
The 2022 annual meeting of the VMSG, January 10th – 12th, will be a virtual event in response to the continuing uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual meeting is being organised by the University of Manchester, and hosted online by the Geological Society of London. You can find full details online. Abstract submissions are welcomed on any aspect of volcanism and magmatism, from mantle heterogeneity to magma dynamics, gas emissions, hazard management and planetary volcanism, with a deadline of November 30th.
We are delighted to announce three new committee members. Tamsin Mather (Oxford) will be joining as the next chair of VMSG, starting in January 2022. Lara Mani (Cambridge) joins the committee as the new Outreach & Public Engagement Rep, and Eilish Brennan (Leeds) joins the committee as a new Student Rep.
The VMSG GIS for Geoscientists Workshop takes place throughout November 2021 via 4 webinars, with additional material also available on our YouTube channel. The course will be delivered by Nick Barber (Cambridge) and facilitated by Claire Harnett (Dublin) and Emma Watts (Southampton). You can find more on the GIS Workshop page.
The recent round of student bursary winners have been announced. Congratulations to Amy Peach (Plymouth University) who has been funded for fieldwork in St Kitts & Nevis, and to Jenny Schauroth (University of Liverpool) who has been funded for support to attend EGU-2021.
We are launching a VMSG discussion channel on Discord, both in support of this years virtual VMSG conference, and to provide a long-term opportunity for closer communication across the VMSG community. Discord enables both live and asynchronous text chat, as well as voice and video conferencing. This is a free service, and we hope it will develop into a long-term part of how members of our community can communicate with one another. You can join the Discord community here.
In the summer we committed to 3 discussion panels to address the inequalities to our community. Our final panel: ‘All I want for Christmas is some action on diversity within Geosciences‘ will be held on the Friday 18th December at 11am. You can register online. We’ve listened & collated community & panel suggestions, and have come up with potential actions to improve the inequalities in our community. In this panel, you’ll have an opportunity to feed into these actions, as well as discussing how we can lobby partner and funding bodies.
We are now accepting applications for the following vacancies to join the VMSG Committee: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer; Early Career Representative; Social Media and Communications; Newsletter Editor. The term of each appointment will be for 3 years and will start January 2021. Contact the VMSG secretary for more information.
The annual compilation of VMSG related PhD projects has been compiled by our student reps, Jess and Emma. You can find the list on this webpage.
The 2021 annual meeting of the VMSG will be virtual, for the first time ever (6-8 Jan). The conference webpage is being hosted by the GeolSoc, and contains information about registration and abstract submission. The abstract submission deadline is November 30th. We look forward to seeing you there! #vVMSG21
The new Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group Postgraduate Student Representative to join the VMSG Committee has been confirmed as Emma Watts. Emma will work closely with existing Student Rep Jessica to represent the voice of the VMSG student community.
The Volcanic and Magmatic Studies Group are recruiting a new Postgraduate Student Representative to join the VMSG Committee. More than one applicant has applied for the position and so this requires a vote by members of the VMSG community (self identifying) to elect their chosen candidate to the committee. Please carefully read the supporting statements provided by each applicant and review the ‘Understanding Unconscious Bias’ video by the Royal Society before placing your vote. Make sure your vote is counted! Voting closes 5pm GMT on Friday 6th November!
In response to the uncertainty caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the VMSG 2021 annual meeting is going virtual. It will be held on the afternoons of the 6th, 7th and 8th January in 2021. It will be a little different, but there will be talks, a fieldtrip, a workshop and a social. The VMSG committee will help run the event, which will be hosted by the GeolSoc, but we would love to hear the input of our community too! If you have any suggestions on format, likes or dislikes from other virtual conferences, or session suggestions, please contact us. #vVMSG21
In January 2020 we conducted an online questionnaire to establish if (and how) VMSG fulfils its mission to serve the volcanology, petrology and geochemistry community. The survey was distributed via the VMSG mailing list, publicised at the VMSG annual meeting and shared over social media. The survey results and associated publication are now available on the EarthArXiv Preprint server.
We will be hosting a series of web-based discussion meetings with panelists to address the inequalities in our community. These will acknowledge: i) the historical construction of inequalities; ii) barriers to inclusion; & iii) a manifesto for moving forward. You can register your interest and find out more online.
We have announced a new Code of Conduct, to specify expected behaviour and our continued commitment to involving the whole community in all of our events.
VMSG 2021 will be held in Manchester, and hosted by the University of Manchester petrology and volcanology group.
You can now follow VMSG on Instagram for recent news and events combined with beautiful volcanic and magmatic imagery.
We have announced a new ‘inclusivity’ statement, to emphasize our commitment to involving the whole community in all of our events.
