Kenneth W. W. Sims (born 1959) is an American professor of isotope geology in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming. He operates the University of Wyoming High Precision Isotope Laboratory.
Personal life Sims is married, has two children, and lives in Laramie, Wyoming.
Research overview Sims is a National Geographic explorer well known for using his technical mountaineering skills to collect geological samples from remote locations across the globe, including sampling molten magma from lava lakes deep within volcanic craters, collecting temporal sequences of lavas from high, technical ridges on the flanks of the world's tallest volcanoes, and using submersibles to obtain mid-ocean ridge basalts from the bottom of the Earth's oceans. Many of these adventures have been featured in National Geographic publications and documentaries, as well as numerous other media venues. Sims' research endeavors focus on obtaining hard-to-collect samples and then measuring unique and analytically challenging isotope systems to provide otherwise unobtainable answers to societally relevant questions about Earth systems science. His research applies a variety of isotopic techniques (U– and Th– decay series, cosmogenic nuclides, radiogenic isotopes, and non-traditional stable isotopes) to address a wide range of topics in earth and ocean sciences. Sims has published nearly one hundred research articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Nature and Science. These publications cover a wide range of topics: magma genesis, differentiation, and degassing; continental and oceanic crustal construction; planetary accretion and core formation; trace-element partitioning; surficial weathering; paleo-oceanography; chemical oceanography; ground water hydrology; water-rock interaction; fumarolic activity; volcanic aerosol formation and dispersal; serpentinization; natural rates of carbon sequestration; and, shallow subsurface geophysics. Sims' major contributions are determining the time scales and dynamics of magma genesis and volcanic processes. Sims' research is funded by the US National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, the US Department of Energy, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Wyoming.
Career Sims received a B.A. in geology in 1986 from Colorado College, graduating lllCum lllLaude with llHonors. He completed an M.Sc. at the University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics in 1989, where his research focused on chemical fractionation during the formation of the Earth's core and continental crust. His Ph.D. was earned in 1995 from the University of California, Berkeley where his research focused on magma genesis in the Earth's mantle. Sims worked as a student and then as a guest scientist for the Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry Group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. After completing his Ph.D., he was awarded the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Postdoctoral Scholar Fellow from 1995 to 1997. He was then hired onto the WHOI scientific staff in 1997 where he remained as a tenured research scientist until 2009. In 2009 Sims moved to the department of geology and geophysics of the University of Wyoming, where he is now a full professor. He was a Visiting CNRS Fellow at the Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), France in 2002. In 2016, Sims became a US Fulbright scholar and a visiting professor at the Instituto de Geofisico, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito Ecuador. In his current role at the University of Wyoming, he is involved in a variety of research projects, graduate and undergraduate teaching, and the supervision of graduate students. Sims is the University of Wyoming Organizational Lead for the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. He has received various academic accolades for his research and public engagement. Additionally, Sims worked as a professional climbing instructor and high-altitude mountaineering guide for 23 years (1975–1998) including in Antarctica, Alaska, Mexico and Peru. During this period, he pioneered many difficult first ascents around the world.
Field work Sims' field work, primarily funded by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation (NSF), has crossed the globe from the bottom of the Earth's oceans to the top of its highest volcanoes. Highlights of his field research include the following.
Antarctica Sims has been to Antarctica fourteen times since 1989. He has worked both as a guide for science parties funded by the NSF and NASA (including as a guide and rigger for the NASA Dante Rover project), and also as a principal investigator funded by the NSF to conduct research on the volcanoes of Ross Island and Mt Morning. In particular, Sims has worked and published extensively on Mt Erebus, the world's southernmost active volcano, including descending into its active crater numerous times to collect recently erupted lava bombs from its persistent lava lake. His most recent expeditions (2012–2017) have been to study the volcanoes Mt Bird, Mt Terror and Hut Point on Ross Island and also the volcanic cones on Mt Discovery.
Democratic Republic of the Congo Sims' expeditions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo were funded by the National Geographic Society to film two documentaries and by NSF for research related to volcano hazard assessment. In his research pursuits, he has trekked deep into the Virunga jungles to access the remote, and often active volcano Nyamulagira, and he repeatedly descended into the active Nyamulagira crater to collect old lava flows from the crater walls and molten magma from the active lava lake.
Ecuador Sims has conducted numerous expeditions into the Ecuadorian volcanoes. Funded by the National Geographic Society in 2014, Sims led a month-long expedition into the remote Sangay volcano (5,300 meters/17,400 feet ASL), which is one of the highest and most continuously active volcanoes in the world. In 2016, while living in Ecuador for six months on a US Fulbright Scholarship, Sims conducted several two-week expeditions to collect samples on the steep, glacially dissected flanks and high-altitude ridges of Chimborazo (6,263 meters/20,548 feet ASL). He has also conducted and published NSF- and UW-funded research on the volcanoes Reventador, Sumaco, and the Chalupas Caldera.
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