Green Valley Tutors

About Green Valley

In December 2016 Green Valley’s very own Professor Stanley Hart was awarded the prestigious William Bowie Medal. This award, the AGU’s (American Geophysical Union) highest honor is reserved for outstanding contributions in fundamental geophysics and unselfish cooperation in research.

Hart receiving the award came about thanks to one of his Ph.D. students. This student has transitioned successfully thanks to city tutor Hart into a successful scientist in his field. Former student Bruce Watson became the tutor. He now teaches the very same course that he took under Hart and is tutoring in city at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Hart, 81, is a passionate tutor and an isotope geochemist. He is best known for his research on volcanoes. He has dedicated his life to studying the earth and educating others on how to preserve the earth for future generations.

Hart is credited with discovering Vailulu’u, the second-known active submarine volcano, located at the end of the Samoan chain. The name (chosen by local school children) translates as "The sacred rain that attends the King's visit to his people."

This is not Hart’s first award. In 2008 he was awarded the NSA’s Arthur Day Prize and Lectureship. (National Academy of Sciences) This award is considered to parallel the William Bowie Medal in terms of prestige. As a testament to his hard work, and the respect of his peers he now serves alongside other respected scientists on the UA Geosciences Department advisory Board.

If you are not sure of how your career will unfold ‘take Hart’. Hart wasn’t always focused on studying isotope geochemistry. He actually became interested in the topic after his initial subject choice at MIT (Chemistry) bored him. He went on an impromptu mountaineering trip with a group of fellow students and fell in love with geology. He followed this with spending an entire summer dating rocks, literally. Among scientists this is better known as geochronology. From here, Hart’s career simply took off. He went from the Carnegie Institute of Washington as a post-doc to being hired by them. Hart researched various fields of science during this 15-year stint. He then returned to MIT to teach, after a former director retired. However his passion to be out in the field again dictated a move away from MIT when he could no longer juggle his commitments. He went to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). It was here that Hart uncovered due to a technical map glitch a cluster of red dots that appeared near Samoa, and his notoriety was cemented.