Carnegie’s Van Keken Elected AGU Fellow

Washington, DC— Carnegie geophysicist and geodynamicist Peter van Keken, whose work reveals Earth’s thermal and chemical evolution, was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

The AGU is an international nonprofit scientific association with 60,000 members in 137 countries. Only one out of every thousand members are selected each year. The 2021 cohort was chosen for their “outstanding achievements and contributions by pushing the frontiers of our science forward,” according to AGU, as well as for embodying the organization’s “shared vision of a thriving, sustainable, and equitable future for all powered by discovery, innovation, and action.”

Van Keken joined Carnegie in 2016 from the University of Michigan. He develops models to understand the dynamic systems underlying plate tectonics and how this process has shaped the Earth’s evolution. His research employs mineralogy, petrology, seismography, and geochemistry to visualize and understand the cycling of heat and material through Earth’s depths.

During his time at Carnegie, van Keken has also been instrumental in evaluating and enhancing the institution’s high-performance computing abilities to suit the needs of researchers across a wide swath of disciplines.

“Peter’s work touches so many of the fields under the AGU umbrella and is opening up new pathways for exploration in our understanding of our planet’s interior,” said Richard Carlson, Director of Carnegie’s Earth and Planets Laboratory. “His research will continue to drive new discoveries for decades to come. Congratulations to him on this well-deserved honor.”