In the newest story in Register-Guard's series on the UO's Clusters of Excellence Faculty Hiring initiative, the focus is on a proposal to hire five new faculty members who study volcanoes.

Paul Wallace, a professor of geological sciences, told reporter Diane Dietz for her story published July 14 that being a volcanologist on the slopes of an active volcano is like being a doctor diagnosing a patient without being able to cut inside. "You have to do everything from CAT scans, from ultrasound — from analyzing what comes out of the patient."

The plan is to bulk up UO's half-century old, nine-researcher deep volcanology program with up to five more faculty members. "We’ve targeted key areas where we think the big discoveries are going to be in the future," Wallace said.

—By Jim Barlow, Public Affairs Communications