Citation by Adam Kent
Dr. Penny Wieser is an amazing scientist and role model and highly deserving of the 2025 GSA Doris M. Curtis outstanding woman in science award. A petrologist and geochemist with a focus on understanding volcanic activity, she is impressively talented and productive. Her graduate studies, which focused on Hawaii, and postdoctoral work on the arc volcanoes of the Cascade Range, fundamentally changed the way we think about these systems, and also redefined many of our most important tools. In her current position at Berkeley, she continues to push research boundaries, often linking microscale observations with macroscopic behavior of magmatic and volcanic systems, as well as their impacts on human populations. Dr. Wieser also works to make our scientific community a better place. This includes advocating repeatedly for disabled scientists in the Geosciences and being a staunch advocate and producer of open source software, including popular tools for thermobarometry, and magma degassing.
Response by Penny Wieser
It is an absolute honor to receive this award from GSA. I am here today because of the many amazing people who have supported and collaborated with me. Thank you to my Master’s supervisor, Stephen Turner, for teaching me how to be a researcher. To Marie Edmonds, John Maclennan, and Frances Jenner for giving me the freedom and support during my PhD to pursue a diverse range of research topics. To Evgenia Ilyinskaya, for taking me on an aerosol monitoring campaign during the 2018 eruption of Kilauea—a pivotal moment in my career. Tomy postdoc mentors, Adam Kent and Christy Till, for introducing me to Cascade volcanism and giving me so much help to understand how USacademia works. To Michael Manga and Daniel Stolper for their support and mentoring at Berkeley. And finally, thank you to my husband, Matt Gleeson, for always putting my career and dreams first.