Rate My Professor Garrett Apuzen-Ito

Garrett Apuzen-Ito is Professor in the Geophysics and Tectonics division of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he serves as Department Chair. He earned his PhD in Marine Geology and Geophysics from the MIT/Woods Hole Joint Program. Apuzen-Ito first joined UH Manoa in 1996 through a SOEST Young Investigator's Award, subsequently held a tenure-track position at the University of California, Davis, and then returned to UH Manoa. His research centers on geodynamical processes in the convecting mantle, lithosphere, and crust linked to magmatism and tectonics across ocean basins, including the formation and evolution of ocean island chains such as the Hawaiian Islands. He employs geophysical methods including seismology, gravity, and topography, alongside geochemistry and numerical models. Apuzen-Ito teaches graduate-level courses in Continuum Mechanics and Geodynamics and Gravity, Magnetics, and Heat Flow, as well as the undergraduate course Physics of the Earth and Planets. He advises doctoral students who utilize high-performance computing to investigate ocean island formation, mantle dynamics, and offshore volcanism.

Apuzen-Ito's scholarly contributions include highly cited publications such as 'Flow and melting of a heterogeneous mantle: 1. Method and importance to the geochemistry of ocean island and mid-ocean ridge basalts' (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2005), 'Mantle flow, melting, and dehydration of the Iceland mantle plume' (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1999), 'Observational and theoretical studies of the dynamics of mantle plume–mid-ocean ridge interaction' (Reviews of Geophysics, 2003), 'Dynamics of mantle flow and melting at a ridge-centered hotspot: Iceland and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge' (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 1996), and 'Reykjanes "V"-shaped ridges originating from a pulsing and dehydrating mantle plume' (Nature, 2001). He was recognized with the SOEST Young Investigator's Award in 1996 and selected as UH Researcher of the Month in 2007. His work has advanced understanding of mantle plume dynamics, hotspot swells, and tectono-magmatic interactions at mid-ocean ridges.