Richard V. Fisher is Professor Emeritus of Geological Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has taught and researched since 1955. In 1997, he was awarded the Thorarinsson Medal, the highest honor of the International Society of Volcanologists. Fisher is the coauthor, with Grant Heiken and Jeffrey B. Hulen, of Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change (Princeton). He also wrote Pyroclastic Rocks with H.-U. Schmincke and coedited Sedimentation in Volcanic Settings with G. A. Smith.