Researcher shares tale of battle versus volcano

A 1993 eruption of Colombia’s Galeras Volcano nearly took the life of Arizona State volcanologist Stanley Williams. Williams will give a free public lecture, “Life and Death on Erupting Volcanoes,” during a visit to campus later this month.

Stanley Williams, whose brush with death in 1993 on the flank of a Colombian volcano and whose studies of an erupting Mount St. Helens have made him a celebrity among volcanologists, will deliver a free public lecture and two scientific talks on campus later this month.

A professor of geology at Arizona State University, Williams is a graduate of Beloit College and is internationally known for his research on active volcanoes. In 1993, while working on Galeras Volcano in Colombia, Williams was seriously injured during a volcanic eruption that took the lives of six of his fellow scientists. Now, after 16 operations and two-years of physical therapy, Williams has returned to the work of scientifically documenting and recording volcanic events.

Williams’ public lecture, “Life and Death on Erupting Volcanoes,” will be given April 18, 10 a.m., in AB20 of Weeks Hall.

The lecture is free, but because seating is limited, admission will be by ticket only. Tickets will be limited to four per request and can be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Weeks Volcano Lecture, UW Geology and Geophysics, 1215 W. Dayton St., Madison, WI 53706.

Williams’ first technical talk, “Recent Research on Active Volcanoes,” will be given April 16, 12:05 p.m., in 470 Weeks Hall. His second talk, a general scientific lecture, “Why Study Active Volcanoes?”, will take place April 17, 3:30 p.m., in AB20 Weeks Hall.