Dustin Trail, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Mineralogical Society of America Award, in recognition of his contributions to studies of early-Earth environments, the conditions suitable for the origins of life, and the evolution of magmas and fluids in the earth’s crust. Trail conducted this research using path-breaking new geochemical tools, applied to the earth’s oldest materials.
The award is a major honor in the field. “Past award winners have shaped the mineralogical/geochemistry discipline,” says John Tarduno, chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. The Mineralogical Society of America has been giving the award annually since 1951 in recognition of outstanding contributions to the science of mineralogy by relatively young individuals or those near the beginning of their professional careers.
