News

John J. Mahoney (1952-2012)

November 26, 2012

John J. Mahoney had earned a B.A. in biology from the University of Colorado in 1975. He then went back to his native Montana where he worked for a while as a carpenter. During that time John had an 'encounter' with Al Engel working on Al's house. You didn't just meet Al, you definitely had an encounter. Somehow Al had learned about John's interest in deep-sea sediments and encouraged him to apply to Scripps Institution of Oceanography for graduate work. John thought he was interested in sedimentology but once he got to Scripps in 1978 other encounters changed his mind. For his thesis he used high precision isotope data coupled with careful major and trace element analyses to probe the origins of one of the world's major flood basalt provinces, the so-called Deccan Traps of India, as well as a similar but much smaller (although also important) lava outpouring, the Rajmahal Traps (also in India). John earned his Ph.D. in 1984, spent a year at Univ. Minnesota as a postdoc, and shortly thereafter (1985) he moved to the University of Hawaii. John established a radiogenic isotope laboratory at UH and used it to pursue a wide array of research topics, including the causes and consequences of flood basalt volcanism, the formation of oceanic plateaus, linear chain volcanism in the Pacific, and magma formation at mid-ocean-ridges and Hawaiian volcanoes. He pursued related research into topics such as the dynamics of mantle melting and the use of geoneutrinos to understand Earth's internal radioactivity. He was awarded a research excellence medal by UH in 1995, and with Mike Coffin (now at Univ. Tasmania), established the Large Igneous Provinces commission of IAVCEI in 1993, stayed at its helm until 1998. He edited an influential AGU monograph on flood basalt volcanism in the 1990s and was an editor of JGR Solid Earth during the 2000s. John was a dedicated educator and mentor to graduate students and postdocs. He was also an outdoorsman and concerned about the environment. During the 2000 presidential race, he was contacted by Al Gore's team about a possible science advisory position if Gore won the election. John Joseph Mahoney died on Friday 23 November in Honolulu after a brief illness. John was a professor emeritus and research scientist in the department of Geology & Geophysics, and a lover of the natural world. He is survived by his wife Nancy; his siblings Donna Mahoney, Marla Mahoney, and Tom Mahoney, and their families; and by his three WW II jeeps. His wife, Nancy, was with him when he died. As a student and colleague John was thoughtful and polite. One never saw him get really angry - frustrated, maybe (especially with the red tape in India) but not angry. He will certainly be missed.

-Doug Macdougall, Jim Hawkins, Guenter Lugmair, and Ken Rubin (courtesy The Scripps LOG, December 7-14, 2012 vol. 48 no. 49)

Varanasi Rama Murthy (1933-2012)

October 15, 2012

Dr. Varanasi Rama Murthy passed away October 12, 2012. Known simply as Rama to his many friends and colleagues, his career ranged widely with numerous contributions to mantle geochemistry and cosmochemistry as well as to science education. Born July 2, 1933, Rama received his undergraduate training from Andhra University and the Indian School of Mines. He migrated to the United States for his graduate studies resulting in his PhD in Geology from Yale University in 1957. His first postdoctoral studies were on the isotopic composition of meteorites, working with Clair Patterson at Cal Tech to refine the Pb isotope age of the Earth, then with Harold Urey as an Assistant Professor at the newly formed University of California, San Diego on nucleosynthetic anomalies in silver and molybdenum in meteorites and a comparison of samarium, europium and gadolinium isotopic composition between meteorites and Earth rocks to elucidate the role of neutron irradiation in the early solar system.

Moving to his position on the faculty of the University of Minnesota where he stayed from 1965 until his retirement in 2006, Rama's attention turned to chemical and isotopic studies of mantle rocks, a highlight of which is his 1985 Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences contribution with Mike Roden on the subject of mantle metasomatism, one of the early expositions on this important process of chemical modification of Earth's interior. On the return of the first Apollo samples, Rama undertook geochronologic and chemical studies of lunar basalts leading to models for the chemical evolution of the Moon (e.g. Rama Murthy et al., Nature 1971).

Following a long term interest in the composition of Earth's core that began with his first paper on the subject in 1970 (Rama Murthy et al., Physics of Earth and Planetary Interiors), Rama is perhaps best known for his suggestion (Science 253, 1991) that the excess siderophile abundances in Earth's mantle might reflect a high-temperature, magma-ocean, formation for the core. In his model, the high-temperature, high-pressure, of this mode of core formation drove metal-silicate partition coefficients of siderophile elements between liquid metal and silicate to lower values than those measured in one atmosphere experiments. This suggestion led to a huge and continuing experimental effort by a number of workers who explored the pressure and temperature dependency of siderophile element partitioning. Rama continued this line of investigations with experimental work of his own withcolleagues at the Geophysical Laboratory to see whether potassium might be soluble in iron metal at high temperature and pressure and thus provide a radioactive heat source inside the core.

While undertaking this active research career, Rama also served a number of administrative roles at the University of Minnesota including the Head of the School of Earth Sciences, Associate Dean and Acting Dean in the Institute of Technology, and Vice Provost and Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs. His generous nature, wide ranging interests, and ability to tell a good story made him a favorite colleague of many and a success in his many academic pursuits. During his career, Rama received numerous awards including election as a Fellow of the AGU, a Life Fellow of the Indian Geophysical Union, and award of the Outstanding Service Award from NASA. Rama retired in 2006 where he continued his scientific pursuits as a Research Professor with the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico.

Igor Lvovich Khodakovsky (1941 - 2012)

July 30, 2012

Igor Khodakovsky, the famous Russian geoscientist, principal senior scientist of Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, (GEOKHI RAS), Moscow, doctor of chemical sciences, professor, passed away on 29 July 2012 in a drowning accident at Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania, USA. He was 71. Igor was traveling with his youngest son Andrei and was visiting his many friends and scientific colleagues across the USA. Igor is survived by his wife, Tatiana Ivanova, his sons Gleb Khodakovsky and Andrei Khodakovsky, his daughter, Julia Rostovtseva (Khodakovskaya) and his grandchildren Nikita, Boris and Elisabeth.

Born in Moscow, Russia, on 4 April 1941, Igor earned his BS in geochemistry from Moscow State University, Geological Faculty, 1963, his PhD, 1969, and relatively soon thereafter his Doctoral Habilitation Degree, 1976, from GEOKHI RAS. In 1977 - 1988 Igor was the head of the laboratory of Thermodynamics of Natural Processes founded by him. He received his professorship in 1983.

He wrote in his memoirs that his interest to study cosmochemistry was greatly motivated by his secret hope to be the first geochemist to step on the Moon. In 1962 while still an undergraduate student, he was invited to meet with the Head of the Geochemistry Chair - Academician Alexander Vinogradov. Professor Vinogradov wished to know whether Igor would be willing to participate in a flight to the Moon as a geochemist. Igor agreed to participate and was very excited by this prospect. He promised and for a long time kept this proposition a deep secret. He did not know that the Soviet Moon Program had been changed in favor of automatic probes flights (Luna -10, -16, and -20).

Shortly after beginning his work in GEOKHI RAS, Igor demonstrated that he was a talented experimentalist and gifted theoretician in geochemistry, cosmochemistry and thermodynamics of geological systems. During the 1960's, Igor became one of the initiators and an active participant in the calorimetric measurement of mineral heat capacities in GEOKHI RAS. In those years, his developments of thermodynamics in geochemical processes became one of the mainstays of the fundamental basis for geochemistry. An investigation into correlations between partial molal entropies and partial molal heat capacities of aqueous species was the topic of his PhD. The prediction of equilibrium constants for geochemical reactions in hydrothermal systems was found to be reliable enough for wide applications. Consequently, Igor became a leader of thermodynamic investigations in national and international geoscience. He developed both theoretical and empirical correlations for calculations of the heat capacities of ionic and neutral substances as a function of temperature. Those methods were applied broadly in the well known Handbook of Thermodynamic Data by Naumov, G.B., Ryzhenko, B.N. and Khodakovsky, I.L. (in Russian - Atomizdat, 1971; in English - Springfield, 1974).

Methods of extrapolation to high temperature of heat capacities, molar volumes and enthalpies of aqueous electrolyte solutions at infinite dilution, the corresponding extrapolation of equilibrium constants and thermodynamic properties of aqueous solutes up to 300°C were described and analyzed in Igor Khodakovsky's publications of those years. Igor contributions to establishing the self-consistency of ion thermodynamic properties with critical evaluations of large experimental data sets became benchmarks in this field of geosciences.

He also compiled standard thermodynamic properties for large numbers of mineral compounds including the radionuclides. These key data became decisive for many thermodynamic calculations and for solution of physico-chemical problems of toxic elements and radionuclide migration in the earth's environment.

Igor was very active in the expansion of an accelerating science - cosmochemistry. He led innovative modeling of several planetary atmospheres (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), of crust formation on Venus and Mars, and of the role of volatiles in the formation of meteorites and planets of the Solar system. In cooperation with astrophysicists the pioneering modeling computations were used for the prediction of composition and chemical forms of volatile elements at different stages of the protoplanetary disk evolution. This approach was recently successfully applied by colleagues of Igor to the data obtained during exploration of Jupiter, Saturn and their satellites.

He was a pioneer of chemical thermodynamic applications in the computer modeling of the chemical composition of Venus' atmosphere as well that of Venus' and Martian surface rocks. He and his colleagues originated a model of the atmosphere of Venus. The model was successfully used in both planning of cosmic experiments and for their interpretation (Venus-13, -14; Vega-1, -2). For instance, he concluded that the chemical composition and physical properties of surface rocks on Venus are probably determined by the oxidation and sulfate formation governed by the rock-atmosphere interaction. This conclusion was found to be in agreement with the experimental data obtained by (Venus -13, -14; Vega -2). That thermodynamic approach was also very useful in assessing possible cloud particle compositions in Venus' atmosphere. In 1983, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for his contributions to cosmic space research.

He creatively participated in the development of national and international thermodynamic data bases (RAS, CODATA, MAGATE) and their publication as handbooks.

One of his last achievements in mineral thermodynamics was the development of an improved heat capacity equation. The improved semi-empirical equation models with good accuracy from zero K to high temperatures. The applicability of this new equation at very low temperatures is indispensable in cosmochemistry and planetary science.

In 1994 - 2007, he held the Chemistry, Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry chair in Dubna University. He taught courses on inorganic and physical chemistry, thermodynamics of natural and technogenic systems, general geochemistry and cosmochemistry, geochemistry of the biosphere, and the history of chemistry. His work ethic, energy, outstanding organizational abilities, deep enthusiasm and joint collaboration with leading specialists in different fields of science contributed to his productivity. In 2012 he was awarded the distinguished title of Honored Scientist of Moscow Oblast.

A dedicated scientist, Igor spent many hours in libraries working on data storage. In his files he stored thousands of papers for hundreds of known thermosystems. During the 1960's through the 1980's, his card system held thermodynamic references to more than 10,000 solid compounds and components of aqueous solutions. With time, these data found their place into computer storage. This work on data collection and analysis continued until his last days.

Under his supervision, 20 PhDs and many Bachelor degrees were successfully defended. He was always sensitive to younger specialists. He treated them with respect, trust and often with good humor. He did for them more than was expected . He always could feel and see the scientific perspective, and support able workers on the scientific frontier. People who worked with him truly appreciated and respected him.

Igor L. Khodakovsky was a lead scientist in the field of process modeling in geochemical and cosmochemical systems. He authored and co-authored more than 300 scientific publications, including sets of monographs. He was presented with the high distinction of the A.P.Vinogradov Award. He was a constantly active member of many Science Councils: in geochemistry (GEOKHI RAS) and in chemical thermodynamics and thermochemistry (RAS). He organized many national and international symposia on thermodynamics in geology and thermodynamics of natural processes. He encouraged and arranged for many extended visits to his country by scientists and their family members, enriching important international scientific and cultural exchange for those involved. Those colleagues are among those who are saddened by his passing.

The name of Igor Khodakovsky is forever written in the history of thermodynamic modeling in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Igor's memory persists in the hearts of his immediate family, his colleagues and friends.

Boris N. Ryzhenko and V.P. Volkov, GEOKHI RAS; Dubna University; Gleb Khodakovsky; Tatiana Ivanova; Andrei Plyasunov, IEM RAS, Chernogolovka, Moscow Oblast, Russia; Hu Barnes, EMS PSU; Estelle Parizek; Richard Parizek, EMS PSU; Victor Balashov, EESI PSU, University Park, PA, USA

Heinrich (Dick) Holland (1927-2012)

May 30, 2012

Dick Holland died May 21, 2012 in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, just short of his 85th birthday. He was born in Mannheim, Germany and spent his early years there before coming to the U.S. in 1940. He received his bachelor's degree in chemistry (with high honors) from Princeton University in 1946 at the age of 19, served in the U.S. Army, then entered graduate school at Columbia University in 1947, receiving is master's degree in 1948 and Ph.D. in 1952, both in geology. At Columbia he worked with Laurence Kulp as part of a remarkable group of graduate students who went on to become leading figures in geochemistry. He served on the faculty of Princeton University from 1950 to 1972, rising from the rank of instructor to full professor. In 1972 he moved to Harvard, where he later became the Harry C. Dudley Professor of Economic Geology. In 2006 he 'retired' from Harvard and became a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he remained active in research and writing until his death. During his career he held visiting appointments at the Universities of Oxford, Durham, Hawaii, Heidelberg, Penn State, Imperial College, London, and the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and his numerous awards included the V.M. Goldschmidt Award of the Geochemical Society, the Penrose Gold Medal of the Society of Economic Geologists, and the Leopold von Busch Medal of the Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft.

In the 1950s and 60s geochemistry blossomed, with the advent of various isotopic techniques and the application of quantitative physical chemistry to geologic problems. Holland's earlier work was focused primarily on understanding ore deposits in the context of physical chemistry. He published two major papers (1959 and 1965) on the applications of thermodynamic data to problems of hydrothermal ore deposits and numerous papers, both experimental and theoretical, on the stabilities of carbonates and other minerals. His work on ore deposits continued throughout his career but became gradually displaced by his interest in the chemical evolution of the ocean and atmosphere. His 1962 paper 'Model for the evolution of the Earth's atmosphere' (in Petrologic Studies: A volume to honor A.F. Buddington, Geol. Soc. Amer., pp. 447-477) established the idea of a progressive change in the Earth's atmosphere from highly reducing to highly oxidizing. Over the years in books (The Chemistry of the Atmosphere and Oceans, 1978; The Chemical Evolution of the Ocean and Atmosphere, 1984), book chapters (e.g. The Geologic History of Sea Water, 2004; The Geologic History of Sea Water Revisited, 2008; both in The Treatise on Geochemistry) and numerous papers, he established the paradigm that is now the conventional wisdom: an early atmosphere that was reducing followed by a 'great oxidation event' about 2.3 billion years ago in which oxygen levels rose to approximately their present-day values. He continued to refine his ideas on controls on atmospheric oxygen, particularly the role of nutrient cycles, in a series of papers, the latest of which appeared in EPSL in 2012. In addition to his modeling, he and his students and colleagues conducted several studies of Precambrian paleosols as indicators of the oxygen content of the atmosphere. He wrote (with Ulrich Peterson) a popular undergraduate text 'Living Dangerously,' which addressed questions of resource depletion and environmental degradation. He and Karl Turekian were also responsible for conceiving and bringing to fruition The Treatise on Geochemistry. Dick was always ready to discuss his science and try out new ideas on students and colleagues alike. His manner was always mild and good humored, but his arguments were always rigorous. He loved a debate and did not give in easily.

On a personal level, Dick was a devoted family man and developed deep personal relationships with his many students-he even hosted weddings at his home and served as 'father of the bride' for several of us. He will be deeply missed both for his contributions and for his warmth as a human being.

[Prepared by James Drever with input from Mark Logsdon and Hiroshi Ohmoto]

Geochemical Society Awards

• 1994 V.M. Goldschmidt Medal
• 1996 Geochemical Fellow

Geochemical Society Service

• 1964-67 GS Director
• 1969-70 GS Vice-President
• 1970-71 GS President
• 1973 F.W. Clarke Award Citationist
• 1979 F.W. Clarke Award Citationist

Michael J. Drake (1946 - 2011)

October 01, 2011

Dr. Michael J. Drake (1946-2011)

The Geochemical Society lost a great scientist and leader in Michael J. Drake, who passed away in Tucson on September 21, 2011. He engaged in research of great breadth, extending across disciplines that included meteoritics, geochemistry and planetary sciences, and reaching across the inner solar system (Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus, asteroid 4 Vesta, and other asteroid parent bodies). He considered himself first and foremost a geochemist. He was simultaneously president of the Geochemical Society (1998-1999) and the Meteoritical Society (1999-2000), and his service to the societies and greater geochemical community was enormous, as exemplified below.

Michael Julian Drake was born July 8, 1946 in Bristol, England. He grew up in England and attended college at Victoria University of Manchester, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology with honors in 1967. Mike earned his Ph.D. in Geology working with Dan Weill at the University of Oregon in 1972. At Oregon, he took full advantage of the great opportunities to study returned samples from all of the Apollo missions to the Moon. The Oregon geochemistry group of the 1970's, (led by Weill, Gordon Goles, and Alexander McBirney) produced many prominent geochemists and petrologists, including Mike Drake, Jan Bottinga, Bill Leeman, David and Marilyn Lindstrom, Stewart McCallum, T. Murase, H.R. Naslund, R.A.F. Grieve, and Gordon McKay. One of the fundamental discoveries of the Apollo mission was the presence of Eu anomalies in lunar igneous rocks, caused by plagioclase fractionation. Mike's doctoral work on the partitioning of Eu and the variation of Eu²⁺/Eu³⁺ with oxygen fugacity was one of the first true experimental studies of trace element partitioning, and led to basic insights into the differentiation history of the Moon. Mike then spent a year as a postdoctoral research associate with John Wood at the Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (1972-1973), which enhanced our understanding of lunar anorthosite and crustal formation (Wood's group had been instrumental in developing the idea of flotation of plagioclase on an early lunar magma ocean, to form an ancient anorthositic crust).

Mike moved to a faculty position with the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona in 1973, where he remained until his death. The LPL was a unique and exceptionally fruitful environment, which brought geochemists, geophysicists, space physicists, meteoriticists, planetary scientists, and astronomers together in the same institute. In this setting, Mike's research thrived and expanded. He continued working on the concept of a lunar magma ocean, and collegial interactions at the LPL allowed him to combine geochemical and geophysical constraints. He established an electron microprobe lab of world-class caliber, overseen first by Tom Teska and later Ken Domanik; the microprobe formed the heart of the Drake group analytical capability.

The discovery of spectral similarities between eucrite (basaltic) meteorites and asteroid 4 Vesta by some of the LPL scientists compelled Mike to pursue this link. His initial work on rare earth element (REE) modeling led to studies over several decades that addressed magmatism, core formation, differentiation, and ultimately the application of a magma ocean model to 4 Vesta. His influence on understanding the origin, differentiation and geologic history of 4 Vesta has been fundamental and unwavering.

Mike's studies of differentiation and core formation in small bodies continued, and his emphasis focused on the siderophile elements such as Ni, Co, W, Ga, Ge, P, Ir, and Au. Work in his lab over several decades focused on the partitioning of these elements between solid and liquid metal, simulating the crystallization of molten metallic cores from which we have remnants represented by the various iron meteorite groups. Although many students and post-docs participated in these studies, one of the first indications that this was fertile field of study came from the experiments of an undergraduate researcher. These efforts led to a detailed understanding of the chemical and physical evolution of metal cores. His group also started studying the partitioning of siderophile elements between metal and silicate melt, to simulate the conditions of core formation, and to test whether metallic cores equilibrated with silicate mantles of differentiated bodies. These studies were applied to the Moon and asteroid 4 Vesta, and demonstrated the physical and chemical conditions under which their cores may have equilibrated with their mantles. Applications were made to the Earth and Mars, but later it was realized that applications to these larger bodies required additional lab capabilities.

As models for these small bodies matured, emphasis turned to the Earth, and its differentiation history, where conditions of high pressure and temperature are so important. Mike's dedication and interest in this problem led him to pursue new experimental techniques at high pressures with the help of several of his colleagues - John Holloway, Dave Rubie, Tibor Gasparik, and Dave Walker. Under their tutelage, Mike learned piston cylinder and multi-anvil techniques, established his own high-pressure experimental petrology lab, and began to make fundamental contributions to this field as well. His group took on the problem of explaining the excess of siderophile elements in the Earth's primitive upper mantle that had been traditionally explained by late accretion of chondritic materials (heterogeneous accretion). He also addressed the question of how Earth's major, minor and trace elements were fractionated during its early stages by deep mantle phases such as majorite garnet, magnesiowüstite, and Mg-perovskite. These studies, with parallel studies by several other groups, have shown that the Earth likely had an early deep magma ocean, and that the mantle could not have fractionated much of these deep mantle minerals, or it would have attained non-chondritic values of key elemental ratios. The detailed knowledge of Earth led Mike and his group to consider general models for planetary building blocks.

Although the origin of Earth's water became a special interest in his later years, his group had worked consistently on planetary volatiles. Early work in the 1980's examined the evolution of Ar and N in Earth, Mars and Venus - again this work was enhanced by the unique environment at the LPL where planetary atmospheric scientists worked just down the hallway. Solubilities of noble gases (Xe, Kr, Ar, and Ne) in silicate phases their partitioning among them was the next emphasis, which logically evolved into study of the I-Xe chronometer system during planetary differentiation. The differences between water-bearing and water-free systems led to an explanation for the fundamental difference in Xe isotopes between the Earth and Mars. With deep magma ocean models proposed by his group in the 1990s, came the realization that water could easily be dissolved into such deep melts, and these could be significant reservoirs of primordial water. Because the difference in D/H ratios measured in comets from those in Earth's oceans began to erode the traditional hypothesis that Earth's water came from comets, Mike began to consider the origin of Earth's water by looking at the entire accretion process from adsorption onto early dust grains, to delivery during accretion, to possible later sources delivered by various dynamic mechanisms.

Mike left his mark on a number of influential meetings. Mike and John Holloway co-chaired the notorious 1977 Sedona (AZ) conference on trace element partitioning between magmatic phases and silicate melt. This landmark meeting, and its published proceedings, influenced a generation of geochemists and set the stage for decades of research. The 1984 conference on the Origin of the Moon, in Kona (HI) saw the emergence of the Giant impact hypothesis of the Moon's origin. Mike was there and was a key contributor to the discussions. Implications of this hypothesis for the Earth were still debated at the 1988 Origin of the Earth conference in Berkeley (CA); the proceedings volume of that conference was edited by two members of Mike's group, H. Newsom and J. Jones. In 1997, Mike and Joaquin Ruiz organized the Goldschmidt meeting of the Geochemical Society in Tucson, a large and scientifically stimulating meeting enjoyed by many. Finally, Mike and Alex Halliday organized the 1998 meeting on the Origin of the Earth and Moon in Monterey (CA). Partly due to this meeting, this field has been stirred several times since, and continues to be a topic of great progress and change, strengthening our understanding of the origin of terrestrial planets and the Earth-Moon system.

Working with Mike was a pleasure and a privilege, sometimes not realized until after the fact. He was articulate and pointed in his engagements and debates at meetings, and helped the members of his research group achieve a comparable level of clarity and direction. Group practice talks before meetings were the norm, and commonly led to a new set of slides being produced hours before departing for a meeting! Mike was easy and fun to tease - stories from his graduate school days indicate that his immaculately clean and organized desk was frequently 'disorganized' by his fellow students, much to his displeasure. In his experimental lab at LPL, his students and postdocs created an empty drawer labeled 'successful Drake experiments'. Graduate students at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory annually pranked Mike on April Fools Day - some eggs hidden in his office about 15 years ago have, for example, never been found. Once on a day trip at a conference in France his group accused him of being 'high maintenance' and he was shocked to hear this...but was a good sport about it. Mike took all of the teasing in great stride and dished it back when opportunity arose. His sense of humor and good will were an important part of his success.

Mike was appointed Head of the Department of Planetary Sciences and Director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in 1994, a position he held until 2011. Under his leadership, LPL successfully built and flew a variety of spacecraft instruments including the Imager for Mars Pathfinder, the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) on Cassini/Huygens, the IMAGE Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, and the Gamma-ray Spectrometer Suite (GRS) on Mars Odyssey. Under his watch, LPL built the Surface Stereo Imager and Robotic Arm cameras and the TEGA instrument on Phoenix, and successfully operated Phoenix on the Martian surface from the University of Arizona campus. In addition, under Mike's leadership, LPL scientists were selected as Team Leaders on the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on the Cassini mission and the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

His personal dedication to space exploration through missions involved both Mars Sample Return and later OSIRIS-Rex. In 1987 Mike and Gordon McKay organized the first Mars Sample Return Workshop. The OSIRIS-Rex mission was selected for funding by the New Frontiers Program in 2011, with Mike as Principal Investigator (PI) for the mission. OSIRIS-Rex will launch in 2016 to asteroid 1999 RQ36, a small B class (carbonaceous) near Earth asteroid, map and characterize the surface, collect a sample and return that sample safely to Earth in 2023. The dedication of Mike and his Deputy PI Dante Lauretta to this mission ensure Mike's legacy: inspiring new young scientists in the stages of this mission, and providing the science community with samples from an asteroid that can be studied long after the mission is completed.

Mike received many accolades for his research accomplishments. He was named a fellow of the Meteoritical Society in 1980, the American Geophysical Union and the Geochemical Society in 2002. He was a founding fellow of the Arizona Arts, Sciences and Technology Academy. He was awarded the Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society in 2004. Asteroid 1988 PC1 was named 9022 Drake in his honor by Carolyn Shoemaker. Mike also played key roles in defining the planetary science research priorities of the United States, serving on the NASA Space Science Advisory Committee, the Lunar Exploration Science Working Group and as Chair of the NASA Solar System Exploration Subcommittee, among many other service commitments.

Mike's dedication to education and training the next generation is evident in many of his activities and awards. He received the UA College of Science Career Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999 and the University of Arizona Senior Honorary BobCats Outstanding Faculty Member Award in 2006. He inspired many young scientists as the Director of State of Arizona Space Grant Consortium from 2000 to 2011. He served as the University of Arizona representative to the Universities Space Research Association from 2000 to 2011 and served on the Board of Trustees for the Universities Space Research Association from 2007 to 2011.

It is hard to believe he had any spare time after reading this, but Mike was an avid four wheeler, frequently going on adventures in various parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. He was also a talented tennis player and many of our colleagues squared off against him at various meetings. Mike is survived by his wife, Gail Georgenson, whom he met and married in Tucson. Together they have two children, Matthew and Melissa, both medical doctors, and a granddaughter, Elsie. His loss will be felt by many and he will be deeply missed.

Kevin Righter, John Jones, David Mittlefehldt (NASA -JSC)
Allan Treiman (LPI)
Nancy Chabot (JHU-APL). September 2011

Students of M.J. Drake
Roger Nielsen, 1978; Charles Hostetler, 1982; Horton Newsom, 1982; Daniel Malvin, 1987; Leigh Broadhurst, 1989; Valerie Hillgren, 1993; Elisabeth McFarlane, 1994; Don Musselwhite, 1995; Nancy Chabot, 1999; Peter H. Smith, 2009; Naydene Hays, 2011.

Postdoctoral scientists of M.J. Drake
Edward Bailey, Jack Berkley, Richard Bild, Christopher Capobianco, Werner Ertel, Cyrena Goodrich, Eddie Hill, Mark Hutchinson, John Jones, David Mittlefehldt, Kevin Righter, Marilena Stimpfl, Allan Treiman.

Ian S. E. Carmichael (1930-2011)

September 01, 2011

The indomitable Ian S. E. Carmichael, who made such a deep and lasting impression on so many of us, with his highly imaginative research career and his legendary mentoring of graduate students, died in Berkeley on August 26th, 2011. Ian applied thermodynamic theory, experiment, and the ground truth of fieldwork to the study of magmatic rocks. Throughout the arc of his career at the University of California at Berkeley, he played a critical role in transforming igneous petrology from a discipline that was largely descriptive to one that is rigorously quantitative, and in the process, he inspired multiple generations of students.

Ian Stuart Edward Carmichael was born on March 29th, 1930 and was raised in Haywards Heath, south of London. He began his education at the age of six when he was packed off to boarding school at Westminster in London. He continued there until his senior year of high school when he made his first trip to the U.S. as an exchange student in Connecticut. Instead of returning home to England for college, he enrolled himself (with the aid of a scholarship) in the Colorado School of Mines, to the surprise and dismay of his parents, and began a lifetime fascination with the rugged terrain of the western United States. After one semester, he returned to England for what was supposed to be a brief Christmas holiday with family, but instead he was promptly drafted into the British army where he saw service in Egypt, Palestine and Sudan. This foray lasted two years, after which he enrolled at Cambridge University, to the delight of his father (E. A. Carmichael, a well-known neurologist at the National Hospital in London). After obtaining his B.A. and M.A. in Geology (specializing in Mineralogy and Petrology) in 1954, Ian went to Canada to prospect for copper in northern Ontario, and then wintered in the Canadian arctic to help survey the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line. Ian returned to England and took his Ph.D. in 1958 at the Imperial College of Science in the University of London under the supervision of George P. L. Walker. Ian's Ph.D. thesis focused on the Tertiary Thingmuli volcano in eastern Iceland, which he used to address one of the most contentious issues in earth science at the time (before the days of isotope geochemistry and plate tectonics), namely the origin of silicic magma, and whether it could form solely by fractional crystallization of basalt, or whether assimilation of older continental crust was required. The problem went to the very heart of crustal evolution, and Iceland offered a superb opportunity to examine how basaltic magma evolves to rhyolite in the absence of continental crust. The papers from Ian's thesis on the Thingmuli volcanic suite are among his most highly cited among an impressive repertoire.

On the completion of his thesis, Ian became a lecturer at Imperial College. Over the next five years, he began to advise several graduate students (Gloria Borley, Wally Johnson, Tony Beswick, Ian Baker, and Ian Ridley), and he developed an expertise on the crystallization path of feldspars in silicic magmas, an interest (along with motor racing) that he shared with Professor William S. MacKenzie ('Mac' to Ian). The two friends wrote the first (funded) proposal to build an experimental petrology laboratory in the U.K. to study feldspar crystallization. In 1963, Ian had the opportunity to take a 6-month leave to visit the University of Chicago, where J.V. Smith was showcasing one of the very first electron microprobes. This instrument had enormous appeal to Ian, who was spending most of his time performing tedious mineral separations for wet chemical analysis. Electron microprobes were not terribly reliable in 1963, and after six months Ian did not have all the data he wanted, and so he submitted a request to Imperial College to extend his leave for a few more months. The request was promptly denied, and he was ordered to return to England forthwith. Ian was so strongly motivated to obtain additional data that he simply quit his faculty job on the spot. So there he was, at age 34, with a wife and three young children, in Chicago, in the dead of winter, without a job (but with a few more analyses!). It was not long before he was invited to UC Berkeley to give a lecture. In February, flying out from Chicago, Berkeley must have looked like Paradise. Given the year, 1964, visions of David Lodge's book, 'Changing Places' cannot help but pop in our heads. Needless to say, this trip to Berkeley eventually translated into a tenured position as an associate professor.

When Ian first arrived on the Berkeley campus in 1964, the study of magmatic rocks was largely descriptive. In contrast, the questions that he was posing, well before their time, were whether the crystals in erupted lavas could be used to reveal the temperature, pressure, dissolved water concentration, and oxidation state of the magmatic liquids from which they crystallized. These questions required a thermodynamic approach, which was a reasonably developed tool in the field of metamorphic petrology, but nearly non-existent for igneous petrologists studying crystal-liquid equilibrium. The problem was the lack of information on the thermodynamic properties of magmatic liquids under in-situ high-temperature conditions. Thus the barrier to the quantitative study of magmatic rocks was immense throughout the 1960's and 70's. Although Ian arrived at Berkeley with little training in thermodynamics, he soon rectified matters by sitting in on some thermodynamics courses in the chemistry department, working on problem sets and exams side by side with his graduate students (Jim Nicholls, Alan Smith, Barbara Nash, and Jay Stormer) and interacting with visitors such as Bernie Wood and Roger Powell. Even more influential for Ian was a course on high-temperature thermodynamics in the materials science department, which introduced him to the Berkeley Thermodynamic Center where there was a high-temperature drop calorimeter. There, Ian and his student Charlie Bacon began some of the first measurements of the enthalpy of various silicate glasses and liquids. It was not long before the 'moth-balled' drop calorimeter was moved into Ian's laboratory, and his student Jonathan Stebbins began to systematically obtain enthalpy and heat capacity data for high-temperature silicate liquids. Soon after, Ian pursued a parallel program (with students Steve Nelson, Mark Rivers, Dan Stein, Quentin Williams, Becky Lange, Victor Kress, and visiting scholar Xuanxue Mo) to measure the volumetric properties of silicate liquids, including their compressibility from sound speed measurements. Later, he worked with his student Don Snyder to measure the thermal conductivity of silicate liquids. Thus began a highly productive period throughout the 1970's and 80's where several papers on the thermodynamics of magmatic reactions and the properties of silicate melts were published.

A unique skill that Ian brought to his experimental work on the thermodynamic properties of liquids, as well as numerous field studies, was his classical training in the art of 'wet' chemical analysis, which he taught to several of his students. Before the days of the XRF, ICP-MS and electron microprobe, wet chemistry was the only method to obtain compositional analyses for bulk rocks and mineral separates. However, the quality of wet chemical analyses depended entirely on the skill of the practitioner, and Ian was a well-known virtuoso! Ian's skill was particularly useful when his research group developed general models for the calculation of density, heat capacity and other liquid properties as a function of composition. Because the precision of Ian's wet chemical analyses for the major elements often exceeded what could be achieved by other methods, the errors on fitted partial molar quantities were substantially reduced. Ian also created dozens of new standards for UC Berkeley's electron microprobe over the years through his wet chemical analyses.
In the 1980's, Ian made his only foray into the spectroscopy of silicate liquids. Prior to 1985, the only way to study the microscopic structure of silicate liquids was to apply spectroscopy to quenched glasses as a proxy model. However, the abrupt jump in heat capacity at the glass-liquid transition is a testament to the fundamental difference between glasses and liquids. In order to identify the configurational changes that occur as a glass is heated to a liquid, Ian worked with Jonathan Stebbins and post-doc Jim Murdoch to build an apparatus to measure the NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectra of silicate liquids at high temperature. These measurements were the first to be performed under in-situ conditions and were critical for identifying the dynamic and continuous breaking of bonds that occurs in liquids, which led to a deeper understanding of why the thermodynamic properties of liquids differ from glasses and also provided insights into the mechanisms of viscous transport in melts.

For Ian, the thermodynamic property data were never a goal unto itself, and it was the application of these data to volcanic rocks through a thermodynamic model that fully captured his imagination. With his student, Mark Ghiorso, the first version of a crystal-liquid thermodynamic model applicable to magmatic systems was published in 1983. Mark Ghiorso has continued to develop this model over the ensuing decades into the widely used MELTS software package. Thus Ian's research efforts throughout the 1970's and 80's were critical to the development of subsequent thermodynamic models of crystal-liquid equilibrium, which are at the core of modern igneous petrology. They provide the only means to rigorously quantify a variety of magmatic reactions, including decompressional melting of the mantle under isentropic conditions, the assimilation of a solid assemblage by a crystallizing magma, and the oxygen gain or loss in a cooling magma, just to name a few.

It was during the early development of this general thermodynamic model that Ian realized it was necessary to quantify how ferric-ferrous ratios in magmatic liquids responded to oxygen fugacity, temperature and pressure, as the fO₂ of a magma can alter its crystallization path. This spawned yet another series of experiments throughout the 1980's with post-doc Richard Sack, visiting professor Attila Kilinc, and graduate student Victor Kress, and once again Ian's wet chemical skills (this time in analyzing ferrous iron concentrations, distinct from total iron) were critical to the success of these papers. From this effort has come the ability to calculate the oxidation state of any fresh, volcanic rock. This led Ian to publish a landmark paper (Carmichael, 1991) in which he showed that the range in oxygen fugacity of mantle-derived lavas varies by several orders of magnitude. The most reduced magmas are those erupted at mid-ocean spreading ridges and the most oxidized are those erupted at subduction zones with the strongest enrichment in the arc geochemical signature, namely minettes. This range in the fO₂ of mantle-derived lavas exceeds that observed in samples of spinel lherzolite, and this provided Ian with key evidence that if the mantle source region for minettes includes veins of phlogopite-pyroxenite in a lherzolite matrix, then these veins must be exceptionally oxidized, which in turn points to the highly oxidized nature of fluids that are derived from subducted slabs.

Throughout this period of time, in which Ian was making tremendous strides on the thermodynamics of magmatic systems, he was consistently pursuing field-based studies with his students. Ian always had a particular fascination with highly alkaline lavas, both because they are relatively rare and thus unusual, and also because of their diverse phenocryst assemblages, which leant themselves to Ian's earliest attempts to use thermodynamics to reveal the full range of silica activity in magmas. In the 1960's and 70's, Ian's field expeditions took him throughout the western U.S. with his students Jim Nicholls, Alan Smith, Barbara Nash, Jay Stormer and Frank Spera, as well as to far-flung locales (to Africa with Frank Brown, to the Aleutians with Bruce Marsh, and to New Guinea with Garry Lowder and Robert Heming). Ian also traveled to New Zealand, which in turn led Tony Ewart to spend a year at Berkeley in the mid-1970s. At this time, Ian began to work closer to home, as his student Wes Hildreth unraveled the erupted products of the Long Valley caldera, namely the Bishop Tuff in eastern California. Ian's failed efforts to raise National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for this project led him to often say, 'Never get discouraged if you are turned down twice by NSF, because this probably means you are on to something!' This was the case for Ian as the Long Valley magmatic system and its erupted products are now among the most intensively studied and well funded by NSF of any comparable volcanic center in the world. Also in the 1970's, one of Ian's students, Steve Nelson, made the first foray down to Mexico, and was followed soon after by Gail Mahood. For the next 30 years, Ian's field-based research moved to the Mexican volcanic arc, where at least 8 more students had projects (Jim Luhr, Toshi Hasenaka, Jamie Allan, Becky Lange, Paul Wallace, Kevin Righter, Gordon Moore, Dawnika Blatter) and where he befriended several Mexican colleagues, including Hugo Delgado Granados. Ian brought nearly 40 UC Berkeley undergraduates down to Mexico, who served as field assistants over the decades that Ian ran his field program there.

Ian's research in the Mexican volcanic arc, a classic subduction zone (and staging area for the growth and evolution of continental crust), led him to begin a program throughout the 1990's to quantify the role of H₂O in magmatic processes through experiments with an internally heated pressure vessel. With his students Kevin Righter, Gordon Moore, Dawnika Blatter, and post-doc, Jenni Barclay, he provided fully characterized phase diagrams applicable to the upper crust for a range of arc magmas (basalt to andesite), and, with Gordon Moore, performed a systematic study of water solubility in natural liquids covering a wide compositional range, which led to the first general model of water solubility applicable to most magmatic compositions. In a paper that is rapidly becoming a classic (Carmichael, 2002), where the phrase 'andesite aqueduct' is used in the title, Ian is among the earliest proponents of the concept that the crystallization of rapidly ascending arc magmas through the upper crust is driven largely by degassing and not by cooling, which at the time ran counter to conventional thinking. It was also at this time that he developed collaborations with Chuck DeMets and Joann Stock, encouraging them in their geophysical studies of the tectonics of western Mexico.

One of the most powerful aspects of Ian's approach to the study of magmatic rocks was the consistent interplay between theory, experiment, and field studies. This gave Ian insight into what are the most pressing experiments to perform and how they can be most effectively applied to examples in the rock record. This probably explains why Ian's numerous publications have a combined number of citations that exceeds 12,000 and why he has an h-index that exceeds 60, both of which demonstrate the depth and breadth of his impact. He has been widely recognized for his research achievements through the Bowen Award (American Geophysical Union), the Day Medal (Geological Society of America), the Murchison Medal (Geological Society of London), the Schlumberger Medal (Mineralogical Society of Great Britain), and the Roebling Medal (Mineralogical Society of America). He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, in addition to being a Fellow in the Geochemical Society, the Geological Society of America, the Mineralogical Society of America and the American Geophysical Union.

What is particularly impressive about Ian Carmichael's research record and mentoring of students is that it was achieved while he was deeply involved with university administration and editorial duties. Ian was surely the embodiment of the saying: If you want something done, give it to a busy person. For 15 years (1985-2000), he was both an Associate Dean and an Associate Provost on the Berkeley campus with a ≥ 50% appointment. Prior to that, he had two tours of duty (1972-76; 1980-82) as Chair of the Department of Geology and Geophysics (now Earth and Planetary Science), plus a two-year stint (1976-78) as an Associate Dean in the Graduate Division. From 1973-1990, he was Editor-in-Chief of Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, and for another 14 years afterward he continued as an Associate Editor. In the early 1970's, Ian found the time to write a textbook, Igneous Petrology (Carmichael, Turner and Verhoogen, 1974), which remained a classic for decades. In 1996, while Ian was still an Associate Dean and Provost, he started an appointment as the Director of the Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley's public science center, which he continued for seven years. During this same time period, from 1996-1998, he was also Acting Director of the Botanical Gardens at UC Berkeley. Throughout all of this intensive and consuming administration that spanned three decades, Ian maintained a continuous series of active research grants funded by the National Science Foundation (and for much of the time, by the Department of Energy as well).

Perhaps it was because Ian was so busy with administrative duties that his time spent with students - thinking about the rocks - was so treasured. Despite two rather bum knees (derived from too many jumps during his paratrooping days in the British army), Ian often found the time to teach summer field camp to Berkeley undergraduates. And I should mention that, at the time, Berkeley faculty were not compensated in any way, financially or otherwise, for teaching camp. Ian particularly valued his time with graduate students, which often began with the long-standing tradition of morning coffee. A morning chat with Ian and his vast imagination, five days a week for 4-5 years, left its mark on his graduate students. The other tradition was Ian's evening seminars. When I was a student, these occurred every Tuesday: fall, winter, spring, summer. They knew no semester bounds, had no official course number, no credit hours. The event began with a 6 p.m. Chinese dinner across the street, and then we would troop back to the department for a seminar that usually began by 7:30 p.m. and was known to run till 11 p.m. and beyond. If you were the speaker, there was no such thing as being 'saved by the bell.' Looking back, I have never known a more demanding and probing audience when giving a lecture.

There is no doubt that Ian's greatest reputation was as a graduate advisor, who produced an extraordinary number of successful Ph.D. students. And it is not just their success, but also the diversity of what each of them does, that is so striking. Just about every aspect of the study of magmatism was pursued by Ian's students: from igneous field geology and experimental petrology to magma physics and thermodynamic modeling of melts and minerals - the Ph.D. theses of Ian's students span the spectrum. So what was Ian's secret? One factor was surely his creative and fertile imagination, as well as his infectious enthusiasm for the thrill that comes with discovery and achievement. He had a way of making the work we were engaged in seem deeply urgent, important, and exciting; a common refrain was, 'If it's worth doing, it was worth doing yesterday!' But perhaps the key ingredient was Ian's intellectual generosity, where he continuously and freely shared his ideas with his students - thrilled to see them run with it and become the one identified with it.

For all of us who crossed paths with Ian, he left an indelible mark. None of us escaped being shaped, in some way, by the hurricane force of his personality. For many of us, not just those of us who were his students, his exuberant pushing and prodding forced us to stretch ourselves and realize potentials we never knew we had. For this, Ian will be sorely missed and never forgotten.

Ian is survived by many loved ones, including his daughter Deborah Carmichael of Concord, California, his son Graham Carmichael of Tucson, Arizona, his daughter Anthea Carmichael of Berkeley, California, and his six grandchildren, Andrea, Colleen, Alexander, Olivia, Ian, and Calvin. His son, Alistair, predeceased him.

Rebecca Lange (University of Michigan)
October 2011

UC Berkeley Ph.D. students of Ian S. E. Carmichael (29):
J Nicholls, 1969 (U. Calgary); AL Smith, 1969 (Cal State U., San Bernadino); GG Lowder, 1970 (Malachite Resources, Australia); FH Brown, 1971 (U. Utah); WP Nash, 1971 (U. Utah); JC Stormer, 1971 (Rice U., emeritus); RF Heming, 1973 (consultant); BD Marsh, 1974 (Johns Hopkins U.); CR Bacon, 1975 (USGS); EW Hildreth, 1977 (USGS); FJ Spera, 1977 (UC Santa Barbara); SA Nelson, 1979 (Tulane U.); GA Mahood, 1979 (Stanford U.); MS Ghiorso, 1979 (OFM Research); K Kyser, 1979 (Queen's U., Canada); D Bice, 1980 (consultant); D Kosco, 1980 (lawyer); JF Luhr, 1980 (Smithsonian; deceased); JF Stebbins, 1983 (Stanford U.); ML Rivers, 1985 (U. Chicago); G Lux, 1985 (Charles Evans Inc.); T Hasenaka, 1986 (Kumamoto U., Japan); RA Lange, 1989 (U. Michigan); VC Kress, 1990 (U. Washington); D Snyder, 1991 (RAND Corporation); PJ Wallace, 1991 (U. Oregon); K Righter, 1994 (NASA Johnson Space Center); G Moore, 1997 (Arizona State U.); DL Blatter, 1998 (USGS)

Peter Deines (1936-2009)

March 01, 2009

Prof. Peter Deines, an authority on isotopic geochemistry, was well known especially for his research on the origins of diamonds and for his services to the Geochemical Society. He died at 72 in State College, Pennsylvania on February 2, 2009, after a protracted illness with cancer. His passion was the understanding and precise evaluation of isotopic fractionation factors for resolving deep geologic processes.

Born in Hann. Münden, northern Germany, he earned his Geologen Vordiplom at Friedrich Wilhelms University, then an MSc. and PhD. in Geochemistry and Mineralogy at Penn State University. Recognizing a gem, at his graduation in 1967 Penn State appointed him as a professor in geochemistry, a position he retained until nominal retirement in 2004 and Emeritus since then. Among his academic duties, he served in an extraordinary, over 60, administrative posts and university committees, including advisory to two University Presidents. To abet his teaching, he wrote for web distribution two currently available books, Solved Problems in Geochemistry, and Stable Isotope Geochemistry Course Notes. The College Wilson Award was given in recognition of his consummate teaching of geochemistry.

In 1981, he conceived as Treasurer of the Geochemical Society its first budgeting and financial planning system and continued its development until 1988. In appreciation of that contribution, he was elected to a unique Honorary Life Membership in the Society. His service also extended to becoming Chairman of Goldschmidt Conferences in 1988-1990 and as Co-Chair in 1991-1992 and 1994-1995. Some generations of geological scientists have had their careers directly furthered by Dr. Deines's devotion to the teaching and evolution of geochemistry.

By Hu Barnes, former President of the Geochemical Society

Hitoshi Sakai (1930 - 2008)

October 02, 2008

Prof. Hitoshi Sakai, internationally renowned geochemist, and former President of IAGC, died in Japan on 30 September 2008 after a protracted illness. He was 78 years old. The geochemistry community mourns his passing.

Over the course of a long career, Hiroshi Sakai made important contributions to understanding the fractionation of stable isotopes and behavior of thermal fluids in various geological/geochemical environments. He served as Vice President of IAGC from 1988-92 and then as its President from 1992-96. Hitoshi began his professional career at Okayama University at Misasa, where he organized and hosted the 4th International Symposium on Water-Rock Interaction in 1983. He then moved to the Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo in 1983 and undertook research worldwide on submarine hydrothermal systems. During this time he was Co-Chief Scientist of Leg 111 of the Ocean Drilling Program at the important Site 504B on the flank of the Costa Rica rift near the Galapagos spreading center, one focus of which was hydrothermal circulation in oceanic crust. Hitoshi then taught at Yamagata University, until his retirement in 1996.

Written by IAGC President Russell Harmon

Karen Von Damm (1955-2008)

August 18, 2008

Karen L. Von Damm, a full professor and world-renowned researcher in marine geochemistry at the University of New Hampshire, passed away at her home in Durham, NH, on August 15, 2008, after being diagnosed with liver cancer in April, 2008. She was 53 years old.

Professor Von Damm received her B.S. degree in Geology and Geophysics in 1977 from Yale University, where she completed a senior thesis in geochemistry under the tutelage of Professor Karl Turekian. Karen’s graduate studies were in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Joint Program in Oceanography, under the supervision of the late Professor John Edmond. She received her Ph.D. in Oceanography from WHOI-MIT in 1983. Her Ph.D dissertation described the fluid chemistry of the first deep-sea high-temperature “black smoker” hydrothermal vents to be sampled on the mid-ocean ridge (on the East Pacific Rise at lat. 21ºN, and in Guaymas Basin, Gulf of California). She subsequently spent two years as a National Research Council post-doctoral associate, in the laboratory of Dr. James L. Bischoff at the U. S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, conducting experiments to determine the solubility of quartz in seawater at elevated temperatures and pressures. Following this, Professor Von Damm spent four years as a staff geochemist and environmental scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Knoxville, TN. She concurrently was a Research Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she continued her research on mid-ocean ridge hydrothermal systems. Since 1992, Professor Von Damm has been on the faculty at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in Durham, NH, as a professor of geochemistry in the UNH Department of Earth Science and as a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. She also served briefly as an Assistant Director of the Complex Systems Research Center at UNH. Karen was highly committed to teaching thousands of UNH undergraduate students in oceanography and geochemistry courses, and to careful training of her graduate students and post-doctoral associates. In these capacities, she was a powerful role model for young female scientists. At the national level, she served as chair of the RIDGE Steering Committee from 1995-98, and more recently as chair of a committee to design a 21st century research submersible for the U.S. science community. She is held in highest esteem by her students, and by her colleagues at UNH and around the world.

Professor Von Damm’s seagoing and laboratory research forms the cornerstone to our understanding of seafloor hydrothermal systems, and was crucial to the spectacular advances made in this field since discovery of scalding “black smoker” hot springs on the mid-ocean ridge in 1979. Exploration of hydrothermal vents along the mid-ocean ridge was one of the most important developments in marine science during the last quarter of the 20th century, because this research changed pre-existing paradigms for the chemical budget of the oceans, accretion of oceanic crust along the mid-ocean ridge, biology of the deep sea, and origin of life on earth. Much of what was learned depended directly or indirectly on accurate measurements of the temperatures and compositions of vent fluids, which were made by Professor Von Damm and her students and coworkers on samples collected in three oceans (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian) during hundreds of submersible dives to the deep ocean floor. Karen’s careful analyses and innovative data interpretation were ground-breaking, and illuminated linkages between the chemical, physical, and biological processes controlling marine hydrothermal fluid properties and chemical fluxes. In 2002, Professor Von Damm was elected as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for her “unparalleled contributions to exploring and understanding the chemistry of submarine hydrothermal systems, and for her leadership and service to the mid-ocean ridge scientific community”. This is a significant honor since only 0.1% of the AGU membership (totaling 48,000 scientists in 2008) can be elected an AGU Fellow. In 2008 Professor Von Damm also was elected Fellow of both the European Association of Geochemistry and The Geochemical Society. Since 1991, Professor Von Damm has been engaged in exciting studies of how the fluid chemistry at hydrothermal vents changes with time before, during, and after mid-ocean ridge volcanic eruptions. She and her colleagues received grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to monitor the East Pacific Rise at lat. 9-10ºN, which is the only location on the mid-ocean ridge where two successive volcanic eruptions have been observed (in 1991-92 and 2005-06), and is one of only four “Integrated Study Sites” being studied under the auspices of the NSF Ridge 2000 Program. In addition to the many research articles that Professor Von Damm published in scientific journals, expeditions in which she participated have been featured in venues for the general public, including educational broadcasts on public television, IMAX films, internet websites, and an ocean science encyclopedia.

Professor Von Damm conducted her extensive teaching and research despite lifelong health problems. She was brilliant and dauntless, and had great intellectual and personal integrity. Karen will be missed immeasurably by the many people whose lives and work were influenced by her and by her contributions to science. She is survived by her mother, Louise, who supported and nurtured Karen through her career and illness.

Written by Dr. Rachel Haymon (University of California - Santa Barbara)

Dr. Lui-Hueng Chan (1939-2007)

December 01, 2007