Katia Krafft born Catherine Joséphine Conrad, 17 April 1942 was a French volcanologist. Krafft was also known for being a pioneer in filming, photographing, and recording volcanoes, often getting within feet of lava flowing. She fell in love with volcanoes when she saw pictures of them and redirected her interest in education in geology. Using her love of volcanoes and photography, Krafft established a career as a volcanologist. Her up-close footage and data have been valuable to the study of active volcanoes. Katia Conrad attended the University of Strasbourg, France, where she studied geology and met her husband and fellow volcano enthusiast, Maurice Krafft. As an undergraduate, she explored Stromboli, her first erupting volcano, where she collected minerals and gases to gather data. Her career as a volcano observer began soon after. With little money, she saved up for a trip to Stromboli and photographed its near-continuous eruption. Finding that people were interested in this documentation of eruptions, she soon made a career out of filming volcano eruptions, which afforded her the ability to travel the globe. In 1970, she married Maurice Krafft. Katia started her career by taking gas samples of volcanoes and documenting eruptions by observing them in person. To fund her trips, Katia wrote many books about her findings, pioneering a new area of volcanic coverage. She also made a documentary, "The Volcano Watchers", for the PBS show "Nature". On January 23, 1973, Katia was called to Southern Iceland to study an extinct volcano that had suddenly erupted after thousands of years of inactivity. Since volcanoes are unpredictable and dangerous, many scientists were afraid to observe eruptions in person. Katia, however, would go right to the edge of a volcano. Her fearlessness and up-close documentation led to her fame and success as a volcanologist. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Katia continued to document volcanoes through photography while her husband, Maurice, captured them on video. Katia's observations have led to a better understanding of volcanic eruptions. She took measurements, gas readings, and collected mineral samples just feet away from erupting volcanoes and documented how these eruptions affected the ecosystem. She witnessed and documented new volcanoes being formed and the effects of acid rain and dangerous ash clouds. One of her last projects was Understanding Volcanic Hazards and Reducing Volcanic Risks. Katia continued to push the boundaries to get her observations, wearing a special helmet to protect herself from falling rock and taking a raft into a lake of acid to get proper readings. The Kraffts were often the first to be at an active volcano, and were respected and envied by many volcanologists. Her photography allowed her to work with local governments on safety procedures and helping to develop volcano evacuation procedures. Their footage of the effects of volcanic eruptions was a considerable factor in gaining the cooperation of local authorities who were faced with volcanic threats. One notable example of this was after the onset of activity at Mount Pinatubo in 1991, where their video of the effects of the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia was shown to large numbers of people, including Philippine President Cory Aquino. This video convinced many skeptics that evacuation of the area would be necessary. In 1969, Katia was awarded the prize of the Vocation Foundation for her first work of volcanology on active sites. However, in June 1991, while filming eruptions at Mount Unzen (Japan), Katia went closer to the volcano and stayed longer during the eruption. Katia and her husband were caught in a pyroclastic flow which unexpectedly swept out of a channel where previously smaller flows had been following and onto the ridge they were standing on. They died along with 41 other scientists and journalists also covering the eruptions, several firefighters, and fellow volcanologist Harry Glicken.

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