A University of Houston professor who studies volcanism in the American Southwest was recognized last month as one of the world’s leading young geoscientists by an international group of geologists.

Jolante Van Wijk, an assistant professor of geophysics at UH, received the Edward A. Flinn-Pembroke J. Hart Award from the International Lithosphere Program (ILP) at the organization’s meeting in Viennain April. The group gives the award to an outstanding young scientist for contributions to the solid earth sciences.

The lithosphere is the layer of the Earth that includes the crust and the upper mantle, and Van Wijk’s research focuses on how deformations in the lithosphere impact the surface above.

Some of her recent work has been in the Colorado Plateau, a region that includes parts of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Elevated areas like the plateau are created by mantle flows pushing up the lithosphere. Van Wijk studies how structures deep within the lithosphere may have resulted in the region’s volcanism, such as the Jemez volcano in New Mexico, which is located near an active continental rift zone.

Van Wijk, who joined UH this year, previously worked on lithosphere research at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in 2002 from Vrije University in Amsterdam.

Candidates for the Flinn-Hart award, who are nominated by ILP research project leaders, must be under 36 years of age, and the winner receives a travel grant. The ILP is an organization that promotes multidisciplinary lithosphere research in geology and geophysics.