Judy Fierstein

Fierstein received a B.S. in 1980 and an M.S. in 1989, both from University of California, Santa Cruz.[9]^: 18

Her main research partner is Wes Hildreth.[1] Their partnership began in 1980, when Hildreth took the newly graduated Fierstein on a trip to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Katmai National Park and Preserve for geologic research.[10] They have since become vital to each other's research, and they have collaborated in the Cascades, Andes, and in Alaska.[11]

While Michelle Coombs, the current Scientist-in-Charge (SIC) at Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) was in college, she was a field assistant to Fierstein.[12] Terry Keith, an earlier SIC at AVO, also worked with Fierstein on research in Alaska.[13]

Fierstein has worked extensively in the study of tephra stratigraphy.[14][15] Her research was applied to fill in the known eruptive history of the volcano Laguna del Maule.[16] She has also developed strategies for calculating the volume of volcanic tephra from a given eruption.[17][18]

Fierstein's work in South America, including research at Laguna del Maule, led to the first ever tri-national hazards map, which included Chile and Argentina.[19]

Fierstein is an expert in the geology of Katmai National Park and Preserve. She has published multiple research papers and USGS publications on the geology of Alaska.[20][21]

She was noted as a "Novarupta-Katmai expert" by the USGS,[22] an "expert on the 1912 eruption [of Novarupta]" by the Alaska Volcano Observatory,[23] and as a "Katmai expert" by the University of Alaska Fairbanks.[7]

She has collaborated with Wes Hildreth on papers about Novarupta,[24][25] a volcano in Katmai National Park, Alaska,[26] and has spoken at Alaskan community events, most notably in 2012 after the centennial of the Novarupta Eruption of 1912.[27][28] She also appeared on Alaska Public Radio to talk about one of her publications on Novarupta.[29]

Her research in Katmai has also uncovered errors in the research done by Robert Griggs,[30] but has since corrected many of them.[31] Fierstein's work has also been applied alongside the research of Bernard R. Hubbard for determining the geologic history of the area around Mount Aniakchak.[32] Copies of a paper by Fierstein were found in the files of Father Hubbard after his passing.[33]

Fierstein has also worked with volcanologist Colin Wilson on Alaskan research.[34]

Fierstein has contributed to geologic research in both the Mojave National Preserve and the Mono Basin of California.[35][36] She was an advisor to a USGS postdoctoral fellowship on volcanic hazards at Mono Basin.[37]

The USGS largely used a professional paper by her and Wes Hildreth to create a "geonarrative" on the geology at Mammoth Mountain.[38] She and Hildreth led an interpretive hike at Devils Postpile National Monument in 2016.[39]

Fierstein has contributed to geologic research in Oregon, especially with around the Three Sisters.[40] She collaborated with Wes Hildreth and other contributors to create a geologic map of the Sisters' volcanic cluster.[41]

Hildreth and Fierstein were also the first to research the stratigraphic structures making up Mount Adams and monitor the geologic changes at the mountain.[42] They published a conference paper of their geologic mapping and geothermal assessment of Mount Adams in 1990,[43] and went on to publish the geologic map with USGS in 1995.[44]

Fierstein has also worked with geologist Dave Tucker on research in the North Cascades. Tucker assisted in collecting samples for Hildreth and Fierstein at Mount Baker in the 1990s for a 2003 publication on its eruptive history.[45]

Fierstein's work with Hildreth has been used for documenting the seismic hazards present in Western Washington.[46]