UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Andrew Smye, assistant professor of geosciences at Penn State, has been recognized by the Geological Society of London for his early career accomplishments.

Smye will receive the 2017 President’s Award at the society’s annual meeting this spring in London. The prize is given each year to geoscientists who have made an early impact in their field.

At Penn State, Smye’s research addresses questions about the evolution of the Earth’s continental crust and uppermost mantle, and how these changes impact the global climate and volatile cycles.

He is an investigator on a $4.2 million, multiple-university project known as the ExTerra Field Institute and Research Endeavor (E-FIRE). The project seeks to improve our understanding of how subduction operates and what it means for the chemical and physical evolution of the planet.

Smye joined the faculty in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences in April 2016. Previously, he held research fellowships at the University of Texas and the University of Oxford. He received his undergraduate degree from Oxford and his doctorate in petrology and geochronology from the University of Cambridge in 2012.

Since its inception in 1980, the President’s Award has been given to geoscientists who are within 10 years of their first degree in geoscience and who have already made notable contributions. Martin Hurst of the University of Glasgow also was honored this year.  

Smye will receive the award at a ceremony June 7. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences and associate of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State, will also receive the prestigious Wollaston Medal, the society’s top prize, at the award ceremony.