Pierre Lanari
GMPV Geochemistry, Mineralogy, Petrology & Volcanology
The 2017 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Pierre Lanari for outstanding research in thermodynamic modelling of metamorphic rocks, metamorphic petrology and geochronology. His wide skill-set has produced multiple scientific advances and allowed the development of new software tools.
Lanari’ has made significant scientific advances in his career so far and contributed important tools for community use. His research has focused on accurately constraining the pressure-temperature history of metamorphic rocks through the application of X-ray, Raman and electronic spectroscopy, and development of interpretative thermodynamic models. This is complemented by 40Ar/39Ar dating, providing holistic insights into the geological processes that shape our planet. A major contribution, which has attracted more than 30 citations in less than 2 years, is the XMapTools open-source software, a graphical user interface program for electron microprobe X-ray image processing, which can be used to estimate the pressure–temperature conditions of crystallisation of minerals in metamorphic rocks. This approach allows modelling of compositional changes in porphyroblast and provides much improved constraints on retrograde conditions, as well as determining the amount of resorption on key phases such as garnet. He has additionally developed complex solid-solution models and applied to chlorite-white mica multi-equilibria for the quantification of metamorphic conditions in low-to medium grade metamorphic rocks. Lanari has been working extensively on how to link pressure-temperature conditions obtained from thermodynamic modelling to age information provided by radiometric dating. He has refined allanite, monazite and zircon dating with laser ablation ICP-MS and applied this to the study of metamorphic belts from low-grade to high-pressure or high-temperature metamorphic terrains in order to constrain the rates of element and mass transfers in the crust. Lanari is a great example of a successful early career researcher, pushing the boundaries scientifically, whilst also supporting the community with ground-breaking software tools.