Volcanologist Ben Kennedy’s attempts to be taken seriously as a scientist are undermined by his youthful appearance.

Ben Kennedy is an associate professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Canterbury. His work involves physical volcanology and fieldwork, geoscience education, experimental volcanology, interpreting volcano monitoring data, measurements of volcanic rock properties, and calderas and magma plumbing. Basically, Ben loves rocks and working out why volcanoes erupt in various different ways. He travels to various volcanoes all around the world to collect rocks, then takes the rocks back to the University of Canterbury and does various experiments to learn more about the eruptions in which they originated.

This story originally aired on January 4, 2019 in an episode titled “Just a Number.”

Story Transcript

You may find this hard to believe but, in the past, my volcano scientist colleagues haven't always taken me very seriously.  Part of this is the way I look.  I’m actually 42.  Now, that’s awesome, but when I was 25 and trying to be taken seriously in the science world this is more problematic. 

I can remember going to a conference and I'd just given my first talk.  I was all smartly dressed and it was one of these kind of stuffy geophysics conferences.  I'd been talking about bubbles and magma, feeling pretty insecure.  I went back and sat down in the audience and two old guys, two old professors were sitting in front of me and they didn’t know I just sat down behind them. 

One of them turned to the other one and was like, “Can you believe that kid?  He looks about twelve.” 

I was just like, “Ah.”  I kind of felt myself all flushed and I had to do a sneaky exit and go sit in a corner.  God, I wanted to grow up.  I felt like Tom Hanks in that movie.  I just want to be taken seriously. 

But it’s never really suited me trying to take myself too seriously.  I had a lot of trouble also getting a PhD position.  It took me more than a year to get hired and I always kind of wondered why.  Later, when I found out they had this reference letter from my British supervisor and this letter had a whole section in the middle that started off, “Ben has a tendency to behave immaturely.”  Then it kind of went on into various details that I won’t share with you now.

Eventually, I did find a supervisor who was willing to take the risk on someone who was maybe a bit immature and liked to have fun with science.  I think, for that reason, I really wanted to thank that old, stuffy, British supervisor that gave me that reference that time that really hurt me but it meant that I ended up with a guy who valued the fun in science and that set me on the path to New Zealand. 

So I arrive in New Zealand and I’m still pretty immature, not really taking life too seriously.  But then the earthquake sequence happened.  I’m from Christchurch and I live out in Sumner and the earthquake sequence happened and that coincided with the birth of my first son.  So these two very big things I had to very suddenly grow up. 

I can remember one of those moments where I’m like, “Now, I've got to grow up.”  It was a couple of days after the earthquake and I was hunkered down in my house and we were out in Sumner.  We got hit by the earthquakes out there when there was a knock on the door.  My wife is very, very pregnant and due at this point. 

There was a knock on the door and there's a guy from Red Cross and he's just going door-to-door.  “I've got some information for you,” and his information was that the road out Sumner was now closed.  It was impassable because of the risk of rock fall.  This is the only road out of Sumner and we had a birthing plan and all this and now we’re trapped in Sumner.  You can kind of see my face go…

Then he kind of goes, “But I heard that your wife is due so I brought you this,” and he had this bag with him.  He gave me the bag, I opened the bag and looked in the bag and I’m like, “Oh, shit.”  It’s a home birthing kit.  Like giant pincers and scissors that cut flesh.  This fear went over me but I remember turning around thinking, “Maybe I could YouTube this.  I could probably do this.” 

But then I went back in the house and realized, oh, no.  We haven't got any water or power let alone internet, so I’m not going to be able to YouTube this.  I quickly hid the bag and went to my wife and, “Oh, so everything is okay.”  I rapidly grew up.  And the road soon opened and my son was very conveniently born the day we got our power and water back. 

But I started taking life more seriously even in my work too.  It started to pay off in my work.  I started getting projects working with GNS, doing serious volcano science research and I would even fill in health and safety forms without giggling or making rude comments or whatever. 

I had one trip.  I was going off to Hawaii to take part in various serious piece of TV called Lava Chasers.  So we went out to Hawaii with the Discovery Channel and I filled in all the health and safety forms.  I might get burnt alive by 1200 degree lava and I'll mitigate this hazard by wearing this massive, ridiculous suit.

Went out and did and the show.  I took the whole thing very seriously.  It was a very serious experiment about bubbles and getting out of lava flows.  Then I went back home and I watched this show afterwards, which is embarrassing enough, but the really embarrassing part was I was deadly serious doing most of the show and it kind of wasn’t me. 

The guy I was there with who was this awesome, old Hawaiian guy who lives out by the lava and he flat out refused to wear the massive silver suit.  He was dressed in normal clothes but he had his own protective thermal proof stuff on underneath.  When the Discovery Channel interviewed him, I still remember like they interviewed me and I was like, “Oh, yes, this is very dangerous.  We’re doing very serious work.” 

And they interviewed him and he's like, “Even though I’m old and fat I, can still outrun that lava flow.” 

I was like, “I want to be that guy.  I don't want to be the serious guy.” 

But this side to my life so I started to realize maybe I need to be a little… not take myself so seriously.  I went back to teaching in the department and have fun with my students. 

So in 2012 there was a series of earthquakes on Mount Tongariro and I was kind of joking with my class, “Oh, this happens a lot.  It’s probably just rainwater moving through the volcano.  It’s nothing to worry about.” 

And, as is often the case, I was massively wrong and the volcano went boom and I had to backpedal with my class.  But also I got involved in the science surrounding this.  Most of the important science went to the serious people but I managed to carve off a little bit related to the rocks that come flying out of the volcano, the ballistics. 

A lot of rocks had come out of the volcano.  They smashed all along the Tongariro Crossing.  Some had gone through the roof of the hut.  It had gone through the roof, the top bunk, the bottom bunk, out the bottom of the hut so it’s pretty full-on.  Luckily, we could still laugh about it because it happened in the middle of the night and there was no one in the hut and no one on the Crossing so there was no one killed. 

So I was part of this big research effort.  Then one day I’m sitting in my office.  I've also got a giant cannon, I forgot to mention.  I have a giant cannon that I can fire rocks with.  I have various other cannons.  I also have a machine that can melt rocks to make magma.  So we've been using some of these machines and mapping where the ballistics had landed.  Then one day the phone goes and it’s Harry Keys from the Department of Conservation.  He's the chief scientist in the park and he's been there for a very long time. 

And he's experienced.  He's seen all these volcanic eruptions.  He's got a beard.  He's got a uniform.  He's kind of a proper… the way a volcanologist should look.  And then there's me. 

So he phones me up and he's like, “Ben, I'd like your advice on something.” 

I was like, “Wow, this is so awesome.  Harry Keys is asking me for advice.” 

“There's some science I can actually use…” and kind of talks around the phone about it.  Then basically, by the end of the conversation, I realized the question he's asking me is, “Ben, can we make volcano-proof toilets?” 

I was like, “That’s an awesome question.”  So I’m made to answer this question but, obviously, it’s very serious. 

“After crunching the numbers a bit there, Harry, I’m going to work out what to do.” 

Let’s just say we used the cannon and we used our mapping work and we actually, together working with Harry, we decided that it actually probably wasn’t a good idea to put the toilets right in the high-risk area where the rocks could come in.  We decided to put them in a safer area. 

So if anyone is walking the Tongariro Crossing and they kind of get halfway and you're dying for a pee, and you're like, “Why the hell isn’t there a toilet here?”  You can blame me.  We decided to put them somewhere else. 

But this experience made me start to really love science for the sake of really fun but important application to science.  I've prevented maybe a German tourist while sitting on the toilet being interrupted but a large rock flying through the roof.  We made a real difference here. 

So I’m starting to have more fun with science and my kids are growing up.  One of my students made me a very silly hat.  This is my silly hat.  I love wearing this hat.  Immediately, my fully grown, 18-year-old students thought this was awesome and paid more attention to me, which is great. 

My kids loved it.  I started doing outreach with schools wearing this silly hat.  I had this big sand volcano and I had a balloon inside it and I could pump up the sand volcano and it would kind of inflate and deflate.  I had this Lego man and I would get the kids to tell stories with the Lego man, the Lego scientist.  The Lego guys, the scientist would always be a hero.  That was my one rule of the story. 

So I was having a lot of fun with this and then they rebuilt Canterbury University.  It had a big, fancy, new science building and they're having a big grand opening for the new science building, the Rutherford Building.  They were going to bring school teachers in for the opening so they wanted some fun things so I was going to do my little volcano demonstration. 

The grand opening was quite a fancy affair.  I arrived there wearing my silly hat and my shorts and my t-shirt.  I kind of looked around.  Everyone else is in suits with beards.  It turns out Jacinda Ardern was there, the prime minister to open this. 

So I’m sitting there in the front looking rather silly and she gives this classically wonderful speech about this building is going to be the center where child adults can discover the joys of science.  I was just like, “Yeah, right on.  Sounds like she's talking to me here.” 

Then suddenly she actually was talking to me.  She pointed right at me and she went, “You, the first-year student with the silly hat.  Do you want to come on stage and help me open the building?”

First of all, I was kind of like, “Yeah, that is me.”  My boss was there and they realized it was me and there was a bit of confusion but I just kind of bolted up on stage and I got to share the firework pressing button with the prime minister and we opened the building.  It was a great moment of pride for me.  I’m there with my silly hat and my shorts with the prime minister, who just mistook me for an 18-year-old, and we’re opening this building for more child adults to experience fun science and make real groundbreaking discoveries like volcano-proof toilets.