Mbah Rono, a Simple Person Who Guards The Volcano

JAKARTA – At the Humanity Award 2021 which took place on Wednesday, December 15, Dr. Surono or also known as Mbah Rono, former Head of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation had the opportunity to receive an award in the Lifetime Achievement category.

This simple person who was born in Cilacap, July 8, 1955, is a father of 2 daughters. He has completed his undergraduate studies at the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1982. In 1989 he then continued his master’s degree in Geophysics at Grenoble University, France and continued his PhD in Geophysics at the same university in 1992.

He is an innocent, simple, smart person and famous for being humanist. His motivation to become a volcanologist came from his compassion when he saw the condition of the people affected by the eruption. Losing life and material, damage in facilities, and even the loss of life has moved Mbah Rono’s heart to be able to help more people to be free from disasters.

Because of this work, he used to leave his family for noble tasks; observing the volatile condition of the mountain and providing explanations to residents about the danger radius of the volcano. This is certainly not an easy job to convince residents to evacuate from the dangers in front of their eyes.

Before becoming the Head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), Mbah Rono started his career at the PVMBG Department of Energy and Mineral Resources. At the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Surono was initially a staff member of the Volcano Observation Division since 1982 until finally the Head of PVMBG in 2006. He has also served as an expert staff at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

He has expertise on volcanoes from various world institutions. Such as from Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and USGS (a US Geological Survey agency).

According to Dr. Surono, not many Indonesian people are interested in becoming volcanologists. In addition to the heavy task, the state has also less attention to their fate.