Best science awards
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January 26, 2026
in Awards, Húsavík-Hafralækur earthquake project, IKKA project, Science Projects

Best science awards

We are happy and proud to have been part of two science awards granted to students / co-workers collaborating on our science projects. First, a big applause to Luca Smeraglia from the Institute of Geology and Environmental Geoengineering, National Research Council in Rome, Italy who was awarded the Best Paper Award 2025 from the Journal of Structural Geology for his paper on “Normal fault architecture, evolution, and deformation mechanisms in basalts, Húsavik, Iceland: Impact on fluid flow in geothermal reservoirs and seismicity” (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsg.2024.105265). This collaboration came about thanks to the Húsavík-Hafralækur groundwater monitoring project in Northern Iceland, where we have been monitoring groundwater along the Húsavík-Flatey Fault for decades now checking for precursor signals of larger earthquakes (M > 6). Andrea Billi and co-workers from Italy reached out for collaboration on earthquake monitoring and offered to analyse for trace elements in our Iceland water samples. As a spin-off and bonus, this PhD work by Luca Smeraglia came about. Congrats Luca!!

SG-Best-Paper-Award-2025-V1-1Download

Secondly, our former MSc student Lotta Hanzelmann from RWTH Aachen University in Germany was awarded the Heitfeld Award 2023 for her Master’s thesis on “REE mobility during late-stage hydrothermal alteration in the siderite carbonatites of the 1.3 Ga Grønnedal-Íka alkaline complex -Southwest Greenland”, which was part of the work within the IKKA-project. The background for the award is described on this page from RWTH Aachen University:

“The Professor Dr. Karl-Heinrich Heitfeld Foundation annually honors Master’s graduates and doctoral candidates from the Faculty of Georesources and Materials Engineering at RWTH Aachen University for outstanding achievements” (see link for further information): https://www.rwth-aachen.de/cms/root/wir/aktuell/pressemitteilungen/dezember/~beydni/heitfeld-preise-fuer-wissenschaftlichen-/?lidx=1

Photo: Andreas Schmitter, source: RWTH Aachen University. Lotta Hannemann, third from the left with her Heitfeld Award diploma. Congrats, so well-deserved Lotta!!