Donald Bruce Dingwell (PhD University of Alberta, B.Sc. Memorial University of Newfoundland,) has a research profile comprising 350 papers in the experimental physicochemical description of molten and partially molten materials and their implications for natural and technological processes, conducted over a period of 30 years.
Since 2000, Dingwell—who is Chair of Mineralogy and Petrology and director of the Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Munich—has amassed a vast experience in the evaluation of many European research instruments.
He recently completed his term as 3rd Secretary General of the European Research Council, Europe’s flagship research funding organization. He has also recently served as President of the European Geoscience Union. He currently serves on its board, is a member of the European Academies Science Advisory Council and is the president-elect of the global volcanology organization (the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior).
He is a recipient of the Peacock Medal, the Bowen Award, the Otto Schott Research Award, the Bunsen Medal, the Goldschmidt Award, the MSA Award and the Hess Research Prize as well as honorary degrees from the University of Alberta and University College London. He is also an elected member of the Royal Society of Canada, the Academia Europaea, and acatech, the National Academy of Science and Engineering in Germany.
The president of Germany has bestowed upon Dingwell the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany for services in the development of geosciences at the University of Munich, his prolific research career, and public dissemination during the European volcanic ash crisis of 2010.