Sigurður receives recognition from the Geochemical Society
Roberta Rudnick, President of the Geochemical Society, presented Sigurður Reynir Gíslason, a research scientist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Sciences, with the Clair C. Patterson award last August at a festive ceremony during the Annual Meeting. The awards are one of the most prestigious in the field of geochemical sciences.
The Patterson Award recognizes an innovative breakthrough of fundamental significance in environmental geochemistry, particularly in service of society. Sigurður receives the awards for his research on sequestering carbon dioxide in basalt on the one hand, and on the effects of volcanic eruptions on the environment on the other.
Sigurður has chaired the CarbFix science board; a project that revealed that it is possible to sequester carbon dioxide in basalt. The group includes members from the University of Iceland, OR group, ISOR, Columbia University in New York and the French Research Institute. Numerous research scientists have taken part in the project in addition to Icelandic and International doctoral students and attracted worldwide attention. The research group's experiments in Hellisheiði geothermal power plant have revealed that it is possible to turn carbon dioxide into solid rock in two years; a process previously believed to take many thousands of years. This suggests this method could in the future become useful in the fight against global warming as carbon dioxide is one of the main trigger.
Sigurður was moreover the chairman of the organising committee for The International Carbon Conference, which took place in Iceland 10-14 September, with the University of Iceland as one of the venues. The members of CarbFix and other comparable networks met up there and shared their experiences.
Sigurður has also studied the effects of volcanic eruptions on Iceland environment in his research; the latest one in Holuhraun. The eruption spread poisoned sulphur-dioxide over large areas in Europe, amounting to 12 million. The level of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere went high above the normal safety limits in Iceland for days and weeks on end in Iceland; fortunately, most of the pollution occurred in uninhabited areas. The fact that the eruption was in winter caused the sulphur plume to be swiftly carried away from land lowering the level of sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere.
Sigurður finished a BS degree in geology from the University of Iceland in 1980, and a PhD in geochemistry from John Hopkins University in the USA in 1985. Since then he has worked as a scientist at the Institute for Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland.
