Peter Molnar is a professor in geological sciences at the University of Colorado. His research focuses on aspects of how mountain ranges form and continental lithosphere deforms.He is a winner of the Crafoord Prize and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He won the Crafoord Prize in 2014 for discovering "the driving forces behind plate motions and the place of continents in the plate tectonic model of Earth's evolution. Innovatively combining geological and geophysical methods of inquiry with satellite measurements and modelling, the Laureate has also paved the way to a new understanding of the formation of mountain ranges and their role in global tectonics."