Professor Kevin Burke Receives 2014 Arthur Holmes Medal

Most Prestigious Solid Earth Scientist Award of the European Geosciences Union

The European Geosciences Union (EGU) named Kevin C. A. Burke, professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, as recipient of the 2014 Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership. Burke has been a professor in University of Houston’s College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics since 1983.

The Arthur Holmes Medal is one of the three most prestigious awards from the EGU and is given to scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in solid Earth geosciences. The other two EGU awards recognize atmospheric sciences and planetary sciences.

The citation for Burke’s Holmes Medal reads:

The 2014 Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership is awarded to Kevin C. A. Burke for fundamental contributions to the fields of tectonics and evolution of the Earth on a global scale, including recognition of the Wilson cycle, mapping and interpretation of suture zones and continental aulocogens as failed rift systems related to continental break-up.

The 2014 Arthur Holmes Medal & Honorary Membership awarded to Kevin C. A. Burke (second from left).Burke delivered the Arthur Holmes Medal Lecture on April 29 at the EGU 2014 General Assembly in Vienna. His lecture was titled, “Plume Generation Zones at the Core Mantle Boundary: Their Origin and What They Tell about How the Earth Works – and How it has Worked.”

As stated on the EGU website, “Kevin Burke and Arthur Holmes share a remarkable number of features and accomplishments. Both men were born and educated in England, developed a passion for and made outstanding contributions to the geology of Africa, achieved worldwide notoriety for global-scale geological processes, especially plate tectonics, and became prominent university professors with outstanding scientific intuition.”

In 2007, Burke received the top honor of the Geological Society of America – the Penrose medal – also for his original contributions in the area of plate tectonics.

Kathy Major, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics