Geology and Geophysics Welcomes New Assistant Professor

Jun 19, 2015

Former student Masako Tominaga returns to Texas A&M as a faculty member.

Masako Tominaga joins the Department of Geology and Geophysics, July 1, as an assistant professor. She is currently an adjunct scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at Michigan State. Tominaga received her master’s and doctorate in geological oceanography from Texas A&M. She has a bachelor’s of engineering degree in natural resource and environmental engineering from Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. 

Her research interests include Earth’s magmatism and lithosphere evolution, geomagnetism and global carbon cycle. She is an expert on deep submergence geophysics using submarine robotic vehicles. Tominaga’s research team at Michigan State will move to College Station with her.

Tominaga has more than 550 days at sea, including sailing on five International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expeditions. She has served as chief scientist on several National Science Foundation cruises. She has received research grants from NSF, NASA, and IODP Science Support Programs. Her research field work on land includes ophiolites in Norway, Italy, northern California, and Canada. 

While at Texas A&M, Tominaga studied with Professor Will Sager. She also received the Distinguished Graduate Student Award in Research from the Texas A&M Association of Former Students and the Office of Graduate Studies, the Schlanger Ocean Drilling Fellowship and the Geosciences Graduate Excellence Scholarship.

She has more than 20 published journal articles, many as first author and some with her students as first authors, and has contributed to several books and databanks.

By Karen Riedel