December 2006-present: post doctoral research assistant working on high temperature deformation, fracture, and earthquakes in lava domes. This project involves high temperature triaxial deformation of dacite samples from the recently active Mount St Helens lava dome. Deformation and acoustic emissions are compared to the deformation and earthquakes recorded at the lava dome. The strength and physical properties of the lava are used to constrain models of lava dome behaviour through collaborations with other research groups.

 

September 2002-October 2006: PhD in volcanology at the ABUHRC supervised by Dr Christopher Kilburn and Prof Peter Sammonds. Thesis title, ‘Rates of rock fracturing as a tool for forecasting volcanic eruptions at andesitic to dacitic stratovolcanoes’.

 

January-April 2005: Secondment at the parliamentary office of science and technology (POST). Produced a POSTnote (short briefing paper for all members of both houses of parliament) on early warning systems for natural disasters.

 

September 1999-June 2002: BSc in geophysics at Liverpool University, 1st class hons.

Tuffen, H., Smith, R., and Sammonds, P.R., 2008, Evidence for seismogenic fracture of silicic magma: Nature, v. 453, p. 511-514.

Smith, R., Kilburn, C.R.J., and Sammonds, P.R., 2007, Rock Fracture as a Precursor to Lava Dome Eruptions at Mount St Helens from June 1980 to October 1986: Bulletin of Volcanology, v. 69, p. 681-693.