John Eichelberger

Background

About John Eichelberger

John Eichelberger’s career spans 50+ years in national laboratories, USGS, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys encompassing volcanology, geothermal energy, natural hazards, and international Arctic education. His academic preparation was a BS and MS at MIT and a PhD at Stanford. He was on staff in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Energy Division from 1974 until 1979, when he joined the Geosciences Division at Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia recognized him as Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in 1989 and promoted him to Geochemistry Supervisor in 1990. In 1991, he moved to UAF to become Professor of Volcanology and develop the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO). Sixteen years later he became Program Coordinator of the US Geological Survey’s (Virginia) Volcano Hazards Program. He returned to Fairbanks in 2012 as Dean of the Graduate School, simultaneously serving as VP Academic, UArctic. His enduring career theme has been international cooperation in natural hazards, geothermal energy, and education. He founded the Japan-Kamchatka-Alaska Subduction Project (JKASP), meeting biennially in Sapporo; Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky; and Fairbanks, and the International Volcanological Field School, offering field experience in Kamchatka and Alaska. In 2014, Eichelberger gathered an international consortium of scientists and engineers to drill to magma under Krafla Caldera, a project that became the Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT.is) in 2017. In 2015, he was awarded the Sergey Soloviev Medal by EGU for international natural hazards work. Eichelberger is best known for elucidating mixing and degassing of magmas and for scientific drilling. In semi-retirement, he was Research Professor, continuing research and international activities from UAF's Alaska Center for Energy and Power. A special issue he edited on magma-hydrothermal systems was published by Geosciences (MDPI) in 2020, and in 2024 he became Editor-in-Chief of that journal. In 2025, Eichelberger returned to full-time work as Geothermal Program Manager for the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys."Our biggest need in energy is green firm power. Some argue for fission, but with the hazards of mining, accidents, and waste sequestration, I fear this is a step backwards. Geothermal is the only truly green firm source, but we need to go much hotter to achieve efficiency. To make further progress, we need to consider the magma-hydrothermal regime as a single system. For this, Alaska is ideal."