Researcher Pablo J. González receives a 2020 Leonardo BBVA Grant for Cultural Researchers and Creators
IPNA researcher Pablo J. González has been awarded with one of the 59 Leonardo Grants for Researchers and Cultural Creators 2020 given by the BBVA Foundation, in the category of Biology, Environmental and Earth Sciences. His project "Reduction of the risk of volcanic eruptions at a global level using observation from space and new dynamic models of magmatic systems" will enable the creation of realistic models of these systems with the aim of reducing volcanic risk in a homogeneous way on the planet.
The project granted to Pablo J. González, researcher of the Volcanology group of IPNA-CSIC, will allow for the creation of a novel system that combines satellite observations and geophysical simulations aimed at better defining the dynamics that control the eruptibility of magmas. This will be done by analysing the temporal evolution of changes in the ground elevation due to volcanic activity by using radar observations from satellites. Such a measure had not been possible until now, since monitoring was limited and heterogeneous. However, new advances in satellite-based radar interferometry now make it possible to obtain and subsequently interpret data in a homogeneous manner on the vast majority of the planet's volcanoes. Thus, it will be possible to identify, apply and refine a new generation of more realistic dynamic models that explain the great variability of eruptive styles of active volcanoes.The ultimate goal is to drastically reduce volcanic risk at the global scale.
The Leonardo Grants for Cultural Researchers and Creators awarded by the BBVA Foundation are intended to directly support the work of cultural researchers and creators who, being in the intermediate stages of their career, are distinguished by a highly innovative scientific, technological or cultural production. It is also a very competitive grant, with a success rate in some categories around 3.5%. The scholarship granted to Pablo J. Gonzalez will lead to the setting up of a high level geophysical data processing and simulation laboratory. This infrastructure with high storage and computing capacity servers will facilitate the generation of scalable processing and simulation prototypes. Together with the computational capacity, the financing granted by the BBVA Foundation will also enable the implementation of a powerful visualization capacity, which is essential for the scientific analysis of results. This infrastructure will be unique and cutting-edge in the area of Earth Sciences at a national level, and will provide a distinctive service that will allow the IPNA's volcanology group to collaborate at the highest level with national and international researchers.
