Transitions

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2014 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences—and about $620,000 in prize money—to geophysicist Peter Molnar of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Trained as a seismologist, Molnar has worked with everyone from geologists to atmospheric scientists and says he has used “any technology I can get my hands on” to understand what happens when continents collide and how the resulting high places affect climate downwind. Molnar says he never misses a chance to venture into the high, cold places of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, even if he’s only carrying rock samples for his...