Gail Mahood
Professor of Geological Sciences, Emerita
Department
Earth & Planetary Sciences
Ph.D., University of California, Geology (1980)
M.A., University of California, Geology (1976)
A.B., University of California, Geology (1974)
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Gail Mahood is a Professor Emerita, having retired in 2019 from the Department of Geological Sciences at Stanford University after 40 years of service as a faculty member and administrator. Her research interests have focused on field-based petrologic studies of silicic magmatism based on the records contained in the rhyolitic caldera complexes that are the sources of "super eruptions" that spread ash continent-wide, and in the deep-level plumbing systems for these volcanoes preserved in granite plutons. In the last decade her group mapped rhyolite calderas in Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho that were caused by intrusion of flood basalt about 16 million years ago, and are the initiation point for the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone “hot spot” track. A practical application of this work was the development of a new model for the formation of lithium deposits in calderas. In addition to teaching and research, Professor Mahood has extensive university governance and administrative experience, including serving as Department Chair, Chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate, and Associate Vice Provost of Graduate Education. She was elected to and chaired the Advisory Board, a 7-member faculty group that evaluates all appointments and promotions throughout Stanford University. Mahood also served on then-Provost Condoleeza Rice’s budget and strategic planning group.