Rate My Professor Rebecca Carey

Associate Professor Rebecca Carey holds a position in the School of Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences, and the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES) at the University of Tasmania. She obtained her PhD in Geology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2008 and her BSc (Hons) from the University of Tasmania in 2002. Following her doctorate, she conducted postdoctoral research, including work related to explosive eruptions at Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. Carey joined the University of Tasmania as a lecturer, advancing to Senior Lecturer while serving as an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow from 2012 to 2018. She has been recognized with the ARC Future Fellowship in 2024, funding her project 'Decoding Risks and Unlocking Rewards of Oceanic Volcanism' with $1,174,308. Additional honors include the Dorothy Hill Medal from the Australian Academy of Science in 2020 for exceptional contributions to earth sciences and the Tasmanian Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2019.

Carey's research specializes in submarine volcanology, utilizing field studies, microanalytical techniques, and volatile analysis to investigate magma ascent and degassing processes, eruption plumes and pyroclast transport, subaerial and submarine volcanic architectures in modern and ancient settings, and lava rheology and emplacement. Her seminal work documented the 2012 Havre eruption as the largest deep-ocean silicic volcanic event of the past century. Key publications include 'The largest deep-ocean silicic volcanic eruption of the past century' in Science Advances (2018), editorship of the AGU monograph Hawaiian Volcanoes: From Source to Surface (2015), and a chapter in The Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed papers. Carey has led major expeditions as Co-Chief Scientist, such as the RV Investigator voyage to the Kerguelen Plateau in 2016 and the 2025 Australian voyage investigating Tonga's Hunga eruption. Previously Chief Editor of an AGU monograph and Editor for Geophysical Research Letters, she contributes to teaching Earth Sciences units and supervises PhD students at the University of Tasmania.