Christopher Hamilton

Dr. Christopher Hamilton is an Assistant Professor within the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He is an expert in planetary volcanology, including investigations of magma–water interactions on Earth and Mars. He will lead the RAVEN Team to the Holuhraun eruption site in the Highlands of Iceland, as an analog of exploring volcanic terrains on Mars using the next generation of integrated drone and rover mission designs.

Dr. Hamilton first began working in Iceland as an Undergraduate exchange student from Dalhousie University to the University of Iceland in 2002–2003, and has worked in Iceland every year since. He received the Léopold Gélinas Medal in 2015 from the Geological Association of Canada for Best Undergraduate Thesis in Canada (Volcanology & Igneous Petrology Division) and the University of Hawai‘i Research Council Doctoral Research Achievement Award in 2010. He also received a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship to the Goddard Space Flight Center (2011–2013); NASA Early Career Fellowship Award (2015); NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Faculty Fellowship (2017); Geological Society of America (GSA) Early Career Award (Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Petrology & Volcanology Division; 2018); Science News selection as one of the Top Ten Early Career Scientists to Watch (2018); and a Fulbright–National Science Foundation (NSF) Arctic Initiative Scholarship (2020–2021) to the University of Iceland, where he currently holds an Adjunct Professorship in the Institute of Earth Sciences.

Dr. Hamilton is committed to nature conservation and in 2017 was an invited contributor to Iceland’s national UNESCO World Heritage proposal to protect the Central Highlands; and in 2017, the Vatnajökull National Park was successfully inscribed as a World Heritage Center.

Visit the Hamilton Research Group for more information.