St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago W.I. – November 8th, 2019 – Dr. Erouscilla Joseph has been appointed Director of The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (SRC). Dr. Joseph succeeds Prof. Richard Robertson who resumes his duties as Senior Research Fellow Geologist after completing his second tour as Director. Professor Robertson will now focus his attention on research.
Dr. Joseph has been with the Seismic Research Centre (SRC) for the past 17 years, first as a graduate student and then as a Volcanologist specializing in fluid geochemistry. Before her new appointment, she was primarily involved in the monitoring and study of volcanic emissions (gas and waters) and routinely participated in the Centre’s education and outreach programme as an expert in this area. Dr. Joseph has also provided scientific and administrative support in monitoring efforts at the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO). There she functioned in several roles including Duty Scientist and Acting Director, working on Ground Deformation monitoring, Dome Volume monitoring and Gas monitoring.
At the SRC, Dr. Joseph is also responsible for the Centre’s Postgraduate Research Programme. She has personally supervised both MPhil. and PhD. candidates in volcanology. Dr. Joseph has published ten papers in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored one book chapter, contributed to fourteen technical papers and made numerous conference presentations. She has collaborated with several colleagues at home and abroad on projects that have collectively enabled access to over US$1M in research funding. Her research interests include: hazards and impact of persistently degassing volcanoes, the use of low-cost technology for the monitoring of volcanic emissions and the behaviour of the magmatic volatiles in hydrothermal systems. In 2018, Dr. Joseph received a Celebrating UWI Women Award for her work as a “Trailblazer of Volcanology for Tourism”. She is also actively involved in organising networking events for early career faculty at The UWI St. Augustine.