This medal acknowledges his outstanding scientific contributions to the study of soil gas geochemistry in volcanic areas, and for promoting international research programs in Europe, Asia, Central America, South America, and Africa.
The Division of Data Systems and Instrumentation of Geosciences of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has awarded the Christiaan Huygens Medal 2024 to Dr. Nemesio M. Pérez, Director of the Environmental Area of ITER and Scientific Coordinator of the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (INVOLCAN).
The award ceremony took place yesterday, April 16, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. in the city of Vienna (Austria) during the largest international Earth Sciences conference held annually in Europe, “The General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU)”.
Following the presentation of this recognition, Dr. Nemesio Pérez delivered the lecture “The silent degassing of volcanoes: a useful tool for volcanic surveillance and a significant contributor to the global CO2 emission from subaerial volcanism”.
EGU is an annual event that attracts geoscientists from around the world and covers a wide range of disciplines in earth, planetary, and space sciences. In its previous edition, EGU 2023, more than 19,000 people from 121 countries participated.
ITER and INVOLCAN are represented at EGU 2024 with a total of 28 scientific communications, 22 of which are led by scientists from the institutes themselves and 6 by scientists linked to other scientific and academic institutions, such as the University of Manchester (UK), Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope” (Italy), Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell’Ambiente, IREA-CNR (Italy), Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), and the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology, IPNA-CSIC (Spain).
Out of the 28 scientific communications presented, 15 are related to the geophysical and geodetic monitoring of active volcanic systems on the islands of El Hierro, La Palma, Lanzarote, and Tenerife; 6 are linked to surface geothermal exploration on the islands of La Palma and Tenerife using geophysical and geochemical methods; 3 focus on volcanological research on La Palma, Campi Flegrei (Italy), and Kilauea (USA), and the remaining 4 address topics such as volcanic hazards, social sciences in the field of volcanology, hydrology in volcanic terrains, and instrumental development.