Hello VMSG. Welcome to the back-to-school newsletter! In this edition we’ll hear a bit more about VMSG-MDSG 2025, nominations for next year’s VMSG Awards, as well as VMSG Student Bursaries. We’ve also got some news about changes in the VMSG committee and some VMSG community successes to celebrate. The Journal of Applied Volcanology are also sharing some information about their aims and scope that will be of interest to many of you. As usual there’s a quick round up of upcoming conferences that are like to be of interest as well. – David Neave
We hope you are all looking forward to VMSG-MDSG 2025 at Trinity College Dublin as much as we are.
The conference website has recently gone live, so keep an eye on vmsg-mdsg-2025.com for further developments.
Alongside the conference itself on 6–8 January 2025 key dates in the coming months include abstract submission and early bird registration from early September until 25 October 2024 and a final registration deadline of 1 December 2024.
As well as the conference itself, there will be an exciting programme of activities that will hopefully include:
When planning your trip, some extra things to keep in mind are:
There will be more news soon, so keep an eye on the VMSG mailing list and VMSG-MDSG 2025 website. – Dublin LOC
The VMSG student reps will be running an online welcome event for new starter PhDs/masters student/anyone new to the VMSG on Tuesday 15 October. Please make a not of this in your calendar and share it with any new starters joining in the new academic year. Exact timings (and a zoom link) will be shared via the VMSG mailing list closer to the time.
We’d also like to remind you that there are a range of resources for the VMSG student community on the website: vmsg.org.uk/community/students.. Please check here for information about grants, internships, bursaries and PhD opportunities. Please also let us know if you have any more information to add to this site. – Kerys Meredew and Rahul Subbaraman (Student Reps)
The closing date for the next round of awards and bursaries is 15 September 2024 so here is a gentle reminder to get your nominations and applications in!
We welcome applications for student bursaries, which offer funding to postgraduate researchers of up to £500 to support activities that would otherwise not be possible. Remember, PhD students in their first year are now eligible to apply but you still must have presented at a VMSG conference prior to the application deadline.
Please see the bursaries website for further details and to apply.
We are also seeking nominations for our Willy Aspinall Prize, Zeiss Postdoctoral Keynote Award and VMSG Award. Please consider nominating someone (or yourself for the Zeiss Postdoctoral Keynote Award) who you feel has made a substantial impact in their area of research but also gone above and beyond to make a contribution to the research community. As a quick reminder, here’s a description of the scope of each of these awards:
Recipients of all awards will have the opportunity to present their research as a keynote talk at the VMSG-MDSG2025 conference in Dublin
Remember there have been a few changes to the process this year:
Please see the awards website for further details on each award and how to nominate. We particularly encourage nominations from historically under-represented groups to all these awards. – Emma Nicholson (Awards & Bursaries) and VMSG Committee
Rosie Lewis (University of Leeds) writes…
Dr Evgenia Ilyinskaya and MVO intern Alex Gowan at Chances Steps, Montserrat, collecting a filter pack sample of the volcanic plume. Image credit: Rosie Lewis.
My PhD project aims to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of the concentrations and dispersion of volcanic air pollution (SO2 and PM) on Montserrat, Eastern Caribbean. With support from several local stakeholders, including the Montserrat Volcano Observatory and the Disaster Management and Coordination Agency, I undertook my second field trip to Montserrat in May 2024, with the financial support of VMSG. This built upon the work I began in 2023, installing a network of low-cost and reference-grade air quality sensors across the island. This support helped me to achieve the following goals:
Installation of new sensors: I installed a new particulate sensor, which now provides real-time transmission of PM data from a previously tricky-to-access site. I also replaced several sensors that had withstood damage over the past year to ensure continued data collection.
Successful co-location experiments: I co-located lower-cost and reference-grade SO2 gas and PM sensors in the downwind of the volcanic plume and ash mining sites to calibrate readings across a range of SO2 and PM concentrations. This enables measurement of concentrations across the island, where reference-grade instrumentation cannot be installed.
Collection of Filter-Pack Samples: I collected multiple filter-pack samples for geochemical analysis to identify the sources of PM around the island.
Ongoing stakeholder engagement: I held an interactive workshop with local primary school children to educate them about air pollution and its impacts. I also hosted a stakeholder meeting to provide project updates to collaborators and key decision-makers.
Introduction to the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service (ABMS): During a stopover, I met with the Director of ABMS to discuss regional air quality modelling and monitoring, its strengths and limitations, and how data from the network on Montserrat is used by ABMS. These discussions also led to the installation of the first air quality sensor on Antigua.
In summary, this field campaign allowed me to significantly advance the progress of my project through data collection and quality assurance, while also creating opportunities for outreach and collaboration, maximising project impact. Thank you to VMSG for your support!
Many congratulations to VMSG stalwarts Prof David Pyle (Oxford) and Dr Lara Mani (Cambridge) for their recent awards from the Geological Society of London (where they picked them up with lots of backup from across the community – David Neave (Newsletter Editor)
Image credit: Lara Mani
Our series of seminars around the UK and Ireland has been continuing over recent months, with an excellent set of talks in Dublin, St. Andrews, Cambridge and Oxford. Many thanks to all of the organisers and speakers at these seminars. We are seeking through this series to showcase the breadth of research across our community – and we’d welcome everyone to attend these. To promote accessibility of the series, we are making the talks available online and as recordings wherever possible. These will be hosted on the VMSG YouTube channel, with the first available recordings now available.
Keep your eyes open for news about further seminars arriving via the VMSG mailing list, with dates planned in Edinburgh, Birmingham and London into the autumn. – Seb Watt (Secretary) and VMSG Committee
As we build up to the 2025 Dublin meeting, VMSG is seeking sponsorship and new partnerships to support our activities for the coming year. We can offer a range of opportunities to potential sponsors including support for student bursaries, sponsorship of VMSG Awards, sponsorship of VMSG conference or a stand at the VMSG conference. We are also particularly interested in developing new partnership with organisations that can offer training and workshops for our community of early career researchers. Sponsors would be recognised on our website and in our newsletters, at our annual conference, and in other ways depending on the nature of the support (e.g. named awards). – Lara Mani (Sponsorships and Partnerships) and VMSG Committee
Dear VMSG community,
We would like to make you aware of an exciting special collection currently receiving submissions in the Journal of Applied Volcanology until the end of 2024.
The special collection on ‘Community voices and volcanic risk reduction: co-production, participatory research, and community-led approaches to risk’ will highlight research and case studies that adopt participatory, community-led, or co-produced approaches to volcanic risk and resilience.
Our guest editors for this collection are:
Image credit: Amelia Bain
The collection seeks to spotlight community participation initiatives in volcanic contexts, encouraging articles that cover various approaches and challenges. We welcome contributions from a broad range of stakeholders involved in understanding and managing volcanic risk, including scientists, indigenous researchers, practitioners, policymakers, emergency managers, and community leaders. We are also interested in exploring connections with the Sendai Framework and UN Sustainable development Goals, promoting inclusive and sustainable settlements and addressing global challenges.
The full description of the collection and link to submit an article can be found here.
About the Journal of Applied Volcanology:
The Journal of Applied Volcanology is a fully open-access international journal with a focus on applied research relating to volcanism, and particularly its societal impacts. The Journal was initiated by the IAVCEI Commission on Cities and Volcanoes.
Characterising volcanic impacts and associated risk relies not only on quantifying physical threat but also understanding social and physical vulnerability and resilience. The broad aim of volcanologists in this domain is to increase public resilience to volcanic risk via research that reduces both human fatalities and volcanic impacts on livelihoods, infrastructure, and the economy. The Journal of Applied Volcanology fills an important gap for scientists who want to publish research that addresses this aim and wish to reach a broad audience. It also aims to present research that is driven and led by practitioner and community needs and thus welcomes articles led by, or written in collaboration with, those managing volcanic risk.
Image credit: Eliza Calder
The Journal also has a unique Hazard Map article type, which you can read more about here.
The Journal has a number of waivers available for corresponding authors in difficult financial circumstances to reduce or waive the article processing charge (APC). These are available on discretion of the Editor-in-Chief. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have a possible contribution and would like to discuss this. We have a number of these waivers available for the special collection on community voices. Many corresponding authors at academic institutions in the UK are also likely to have the APC covered under institutional read and publish agreements with Springer Nature. Thus we encourage you to check if your institution is included. Please also feel free to share this information with any colleagues who may benefit. – Emma Hudson-Doyle, Editor-in-Chief (e.e.hudson-doyle@massey.ac.nz) and Amelia Bain, Managing Editor (amelia.bain@ed.ac.uk)
It’s early days, but the VMSG Committee are looking ahead to 2026 and invite possible hosts to get in touch. If you’re keen to organise a meeting or would like some more information about what would be involved if you were to run one, please get in touch. Tamsin Mather (Chair) and Seb Watt (Secretary) are the best first points of call, but feel free to reach out to other committee members as well. – VMSG Committee
AGU Fall Meeting 2024, Washington D.C., 9-13 December 2023, abstract submission deadline of 31 July 2024, website
VMSG-MDSG 2025 (with MDSG 2025), Dublin, 6–8 January 2025 website
EGU 2025, Vienna, 27 April–2 May 2025 , session proposal deadline of 9 September 2025 website
IAVCEI 2025, Geneva, 29 June–4 July 2025, abstract submission deadline of 20 December 2024 website
Goldschmidt 2025, Prague, 6–11 July 2025
Do you have any job opportunities, PhD viva celebrations, or funding announcements that you would like to advertise? If so, please get in touch with David Neave (Newsletter Editor)
Don’t forget to keep in touch with us and other volcanologists around the world. There are several ways you can do this: through the VMSG PhD and ECR directory (here), the Arizona State University mailing list (here), and the VMSG mailing list (here).
