Michael Manga (born July 22, 1968) is a Canadian-American geoscientist who is currently a professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

. Born in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of ...

, Manga grew up in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

. His father is a South African immigrant of Indian descent, and his mother is of German and Polish descent. He has a B.S. in

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

from

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...

(1990), S.M. in engineering sciences from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

(1992), and Ph.D. in Earth and planetary sciences (1994) from Harvard. In 1994 he was selected as a

Miller Fellow The Miller Research Fellows program is the central program of the Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science on the University of California Berkeley campus. The program constitutes the support of Research Fellows - ...

at the University of California Berkeley for a two-year term. Following his move to the University of Oregon he returned to Berkeley. In 2008-2009 he was named a Miller Research Professor. He served on the executive committee of the

Miller Institute The Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science was established on the University of California, Berkeley, campus in 1955 after Adolph C. Miller and his wife, Mary Sprague Miller, made a donation to the university. It was their wish that the d ...

between 2009 and 2016. In 2003, he made Popular Science magazines second annual PopSci Brilliant 10 list and won the Geological Society of America's Young Scientist Award (Donath Medal). A 2005

MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

, he won an award from the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...

(NSF) in support of his studies of geological fluid mechanics and magma flow prior to eruptions. In November 2005, shortly after receiving the MacArthur, Manga made another list, the People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue in which he admits that he agreed to be included because, "I wanted to get information out to people who wouldn't normally hear or see anything about science."Edelstein, Wend
"Hesitant hottie"
UC Berkeley News, December 2, 2005. He was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 2018. His research interests include

planetary science Planetary science (or more rarely, planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), celestial bodies (such as moons, asteroids, comets) and planetary systems (in particular those of the Solar System) and the processes of their ...

fluid mechanics Fluid mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the mechanics of fluids ( liquids, gases, and plasmas) and the forces on them. It has applications in a wide range of disciplines, including mechanical, aerospace, civil, chemical and ...

hydrology Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is call ...

geodynamics Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, mo ...

, and physical

volcanology Volcanology (also spelled vulcanology) is the study of volcanoes, lava, magma and related geological, geophysical and geochemical phenomena (volcanism). The term ''volcanology'' is derived from the Latin word '' vulcan''. Vulcan was the an ...

Academic Background

* 1986 Ontario Secondary Diploma,

Lisgar Collegiate Institute Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. History In 1843, a grammar school with 40 paying students ...

, Ottawa, ON, CANADA * 1990 B.S. (Geophysics)

in Montreal, QC, CANADA * 1992 S.M. (Engineering Sciences)

in Cambridge, MA USA * 1994 Ph.D. (Earth and Planetary Sciences) Harvard University

Notes

External links

UC Berkeley profile
1968 births Living people American earth scientists American people of German descent American people of Indian descent American people of Polish descent American people of South African descent Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian people of German descent Canadian people of Indian descent Canadian people of Polish descent Canadian people of South African descent Harvard University alumni MacArthur Fellows University of California, Berkeley faculty Lisgar Collegiate Institute alumni Scientists from Hamilton, Ontario McGill University alumni {{US-academic-scientist-stub