Rate My Professor Richard Arculus

Richard Arculus is Emeritus Professor in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University. He earned a BSc with first-class honours in Geology from the University of Durham, UK, in 1970, and a PhD from the same institution in 1973, with a thesis on the alkali basalt and andesite association of Grenada, Lesser Antilles. After his doctorate, he served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science. He held faculty positions at Rice University and the University of Michigan during the 1970s through early 1990s, followed by a position at the University of New England, Australia, before joining ANU as a full professor in 1994.

An igneous petrologist and geochemist, Professor Arculus's research centers on the differentiation of the Earth, with emphasis on continental crust formation and global geochemical recycling. His interests include island arc and back-arc magmatism, subduction-related geochemical modifications, volatile behavior in arc magmas, oceanic plateau development, and subduction initiation, notably through IODP Expedition 351 in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana system. He examines redox processes in arc magmas versus mid-ocean ridge and ocean island settings, mantle source contributions to back-arc basins, and tectonic-magmatic responses to subduction onset. With over 30 years in scientific ocean drilling, he has led Australian participation in international programs. A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM), his key works include the book Volcanic Arc Systems (2008) and papers such as "The redox state of subduction zones: insights from arc-peridotites" (1999, Chemical Geology), "Release of gold-bearing fluids in convergent margin magmas prompted by magnetite crystallization" (2004, Nature), "Aspects of magma genesis in arcs" (1994, Lithos), and "Use and abuse of the terms calcalkaline and calcalkalic" (2003, Journal of Petrology).