European Distinguished Geoscientist Medal Goes to Becker

December 12, 2023

The European Geosciences Union has awarded the 2023 Augustus Love Medal to Jackson School of Geosciences Professor Thorsten Becker for outstanding research contributions in the field of geodynamics and for leadership and selfless service to the scientific community.

The Love Medal is Europe’s highest honor in geodynamics — the study of convection in Earth’s solid mantle and of accompanying processes that shape the planet. The field includes plate tectonics, volcanism, mountain building and earthquakes.

“I’m happy to be honored this way and to be in the company of some really outstanding geodynamicists,” Becker said.

Becker was among the first to use computer modeling to understand the pattern of flow in the mantle and its effect on the planet. In recent years, Becker has been part of several international efforts to understand large earthquakes, including the Megathrust Modeling Framework. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project aims to use supercomputers to potentially forecast earthquakes in a manner similar to how they’re used for forecasting weather.

Becker is a professor at the Jackson School’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and a senior research scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics. He is also an associated faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences.