Thomas Gernon
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Thomas Gernon (born 1983, County Louth, Ireland) youngest son of Thomas and Eileen, won the Millennium Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (Ireland) for his work on the numerical modeling of urbanization trends in Europe. His project entitled The Geography and Mathematics of Europe’s Urban Centres was also awarded the prestigious Alumni Prize at the 12th European Union Contest for Young Scientists. In March 2000, Gernon was honoured with “the highest form of recognition a county can bestow” - a joint civic reception from Louth County Council and Dundalk Urban District Council. Thomas Gernon studied geology at University College Dublin graduating with First Class Honours in 2004. Since September 2004, he has been conducting a De Beers funded Ph.D. on the volcanic eruption mechanisms of diamond bearing rocks at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. The project entitled The dynamics of degassing and explosive volcanism in kimberlite pipes involves both experimental work on the gas-fluidization of particles and fieldwork at Jwaneng Diamond Mine in the Kalahari Desert, Republic of Botswana and the De Beers Venetia Mine on the South-Africa Zimbabwe border. His work on the internal structure of volcanoes also takes him to many active volcanoes around the world, including those of Iceland, Italy, Greece and the Kamchatka Peninsula, Far Eastern Siberia.
