Robert Hazen
Robert Hazen | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Miller Hazen November 1, 1948 |
Education |
|
Spouse | Margaret Joan Hindle (m. 1969) |
Children | 2 |
Awards | Roebling Medal |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mineralogy, Astrobiology |
Institutions | Carnegie Institution for Science, George Mason University, Deep Carbon Observatory |
Thesis | Effects of temperature and pressure on the crystal physics of olivine (1975) |
Doctoral advisor | Charles Burnham |
Other academic advisors | David Wones |
Website | hazen |
Notes | |
Robert Miller Hazen (born November 1, 1948) is an American
Early life
Hazen was born in
The Hazen family moved to New Jersey, where Robert's eight-grade teacher, Bill Welsh, observed Robert's interest in his collection of minerals. Hazen later recalled "He gave me a starter collection of 100 specimens, mineral field guides, and mimeographed directions to Paterson and Franklin, New Jersey."[6] Hazen also had an early interest in music, starting with the piano at age 5, the violin at 6 and the trumpet at age 9.[7]
Education
Hazen worked on his B.S. and S.M. (Master of Science) in Earth Science at the
While a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at
Geophysical Laboratory
In 1976, Hazen joined the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory as a research associate.[1] After a brief stint measuring optical properties of lunar minerals with Peter Bell and David Mao, he started to do X-ray crystallography with Larry Finger.[8] He later recalled, "It was a match made in mineralogical heaven: Larry loved to write code, build machines, and analyze data; I loved to mount crystals, run the diffractometers, and write papers."[6] They collaborated for two decades and determined about a thousand crystal structures at variable pressures and temperatures, work summarized in their 1982 book Comparative Crystal Chemistry.[8][12]
Much of the work that Hazen was doing could be classified as
High-temperature superconductors
Cooled to very low temperatures, some materials experience a sudden transition where
A group led by
Mao and Hazen determined that the crystal structure of the superconducting phase was like that of perovskite, an important mineral in Earth's mantle.[17] Subsequently, Hazen's group identified twelve more high-temperature oxide superconductors, all with perovskite structures, and worked on organic superconductors.[18]
Origins of life
By the mid-1990s, Hazen felt that his research had reached a "respectable plateau" where the main principles of how crystals compress were known. The questions he was asking were increasingly narrow and the answers rarely surprising. So he changed research directions to study life's chemical origins.
The publication of their results, which seemed to support the
Homochirality
Organic molecules often come in two mirror-image forms, often referred to as "right-handed" and "left-handed". This handedness is called chirality. For example, the amino acid alanine comes in a right-handed (D-alanine) and a left-handed (L-alanine) form. Living cells are very selective, choosing amino acids only in the left-handed form and sugars in the right-handed form.[23] However, most abiotic processes produce an equal amount of each. Somehow life must have developed this preference (homochirality); but while scientists have proposed several theories, they have no consensus on the mechanism.[24]
Hazen investigated the possibility that organic molecules might acquire a chiral asymmetry when grown on the faces of mineral crystals. Some, like quartz, come in mirror-image forms; others, like calcite, are symmetric about their centers but their faces come in pairs with opposite chirality.[25] With Tim Filley, an expert at organic chemical analysis, and Glenn Goodfriend, a geochemist, Hazen cleaned large calcite crystals and dipped them into aspartic acid. They found that each face of the crystal had a small preference for either left- or right-handed forms of aspartate. They proposed that a similar mechanism might work on other amino acids and sugars.[26] This work attracted a lot of interest from the pharmaceutical industry, which needs to produce some of their drugs with a pure chirality.[8]
Mineral evolution
At a Christmas party in 2006, the biophysicist Harold Morowitz asked Hazen whether there were clay minerals during the Archean Eon. Hazen could not recall a mineralogist ever having asked whether a given mineral existed in a given era,[27][28] and it occurred to him that no one had ever explored how Earth's mineralogy changed over time. He worked on this question for a year with his closest colleague, geochemist Dimitri Sverjensky at Johns Hopkins University, and some other collaborators including a mineralogist, Robert Downs; a petrologist, John Ferry; and a geobiologist, Dominic Papineau. The result was a paper in American Mineralogist that provided a new historical context to mineralogy that they called mineral evolution.[29]
Based on a review of the literature, Hazen and his co-authors estimated that the number of minerals in the Solar System has grown from about a dozen at the time of its formation to over 4300 at present. (As of 2017, the latter number has grown to 5300.[30]). They predicted that there was a systematic increase in the number of mineral species over time, and identified three main eras of change: the formation of the Solar System and planets; the reworking of crust and mantle and the onset of plate tectonics; and the appearance of life. After the first era, there were 250 minerals; after the second, 1500. The remainder were made possible by the action of living organisms, particularly the addition of oxygen to the atmosphere.[31][32][33][34][35] This paper was followed over the next few years by several studies concentrating on one chemical element at a time and mapping out the first appearances of minerals involving each element.[36]
Deep Carbon Observatory
Hazen and his colleagues started the Carbon Mineral Challenge, a citizen science project dedicated to accelerating the discovery of "missing" carbon-bearing minerals.[37]
Teaching
As the Clarence B. Robinson Professor at George Mason University, Hazen developed innovative courses to promote
Hazen and Trefil went on to write three undergraduate textbooks: The Sciences: An Integrated Approach (1993),[44] The Physical Sciences: An Integrated Approach (1995),[45] and Physics Matters: An Introduction to Conceptual Physics (2004).[46] Hazen used these as the basis for a 60-lecture video and audio course called The Joy of Science.[47][38]
Public engagement
In 2008, Hazen was an outgoing member of the AAAS Committee on Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He and his wife Margee, noting that it is important for scientists to engage with the public but actually doing so does not help them get tenure, proposed a new award, The Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, and established a fund for it.[48] The first award, with a monetary prize of $5,000, was announced in 2010.[49]
Honors
Hazen is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Mineralogical Society of America presented Hazen with the Mineralogical Society of America Award in 1982 and the Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2009.[38][50] In 2016, he received its highest award, the Roebling Medal.[8][6] He also served as Distinguished Lecturer and is a Past President of the Society. A mineral that was discovered in Mono Lake was named hazenite in his honor by Hexiong Yang, a former student of his.[34]
In 1986, Hazen received the Ipatieff Prize, which the American Chemical Society awards in recognition of "outstanding chemical experimental work in the field of catalysis or high pressure".[51]
For the book The Music Men, he and his wife Margaret received the Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1989.[52]
For his popular and educational science writing, Hazen received the E.A. Wood Science Writing Award from the American Crystallographic Association in 1998,[53]
In 2012, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia presented Hazen with its Outstanding Faculty Award.[54]
Hazen has presented numerous named lectures at universities. He gave a Directorate for Biological Sciences Distinguished Lecture at the National Science Foundation in 2007,[55] and was named the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer for 2008–2010.[56][57]
In 2019, Hazen was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.[58]
In 2021, Hazen was awarded the Medal of Excellence in Mineralogical Sciences from the International Mineralogical Association.[59]
Publications
Hazen is author of more than 350 articles and 20 books on science, history, and music.
Refereed articles
Hazen has 289 refereed publications that have been cited a total of over 11,000 times, for an h-index of 58. A selection of articles follows:
- Hazen, R. M.; Wones, D. R. (1971). "The effect of cation substitution on the physical properties of trioctahedral micas". American Mineralogist. 57: 103–129.
- —; Burnham, C.W. (1973). "The crystal structures of one-layer phlogopite and annite". American Mineralogist. 58: 889–900.
- — (1976). "Effects of temperature and pressure on the crystal structure of forsterite". American Mineralogist. 61: 1280–1293.
- —; Prewitt, C. T. (1977). Effects of temperature and pressure on interatomic distances in oxygen-based minerals. Vol. 62. pp. 309–315. )
- —; Finger, L. W.; Angel, R. J.; Prewitt, C. T.; Ross, N. L.; Mao, H. K.; Hadidiacos, C. G.; Hor, P. H.; Meng, R. L.; Chu, C. W. (1 May 1987). "Crystallographic description of phases in the Y-Ba-Cu-O superconductor". Physical Review B. 35 (13): 7238–7241. PMID 9941012.
- —; Prewitt, C. T.; Angel, R. J.; Ross, N. L.; Finger, L. W.; Hadidiacos, C. G.; Veblen, D. R.; Heaney, P. J.; Hor, P. H.; Meng, R. L.; Sun, Y. Y.; Wang, Y. Q.; Xue, Y. Y.; Huang, Z. J.; Gao, L.; Bechtold, J.; Chu, C. W. (21 March 1988). "Superconductivity in the high-Bi-Ca-Sr-Cu-O system: Phase identification". Physical Review Letters. 60 (12): 1174–1177. PMID 10037960.
- —; Finger, L. W.; Angel, R. J.; Prewitt, C. T.; Ross, N. L.; Hadidiacos, C. G.; Heaney, P. J.; Veblen, D. R.; Sheng, Z. Z.; El Ali, A.; Hermann, A. M. (18 April 1988). "100-K superconducting phases in the Tl-Ca-Ba-Cu-O system". Physical Review Letters. 60 (16): 1657–1660. PMID 10038103.
- —; Filley, T. R.; Goodfriend, G. A. (1 May 2001). "Selective adsorption of L- and D-amino acids on calcite: Implications for biochemical homochirality". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98 (10): 5487–5490. PMID 11331767.
- —; Sholl, David S. (June 2003). "Chiral selection on inorganic crystalline surfaces". Nature Materials. 2 (6): 367–374. S2CID 10531985.
- —; Papineau, D.; Bleeker, W.; Downs, R. T.; Ferry, J. M.; McCoy, T. J.; Sverjensky, D. A.; Yang, H. (1 November 2008). "Mineral evolution". American Mineralogist. 93 (11–12): 1693–1720. S2CID 27460479.
Books
- Hazen, Robert M. (1979). North American geology : Early writings. Benchmark papers in geology. Vol. 51. Stroudsburg, PA: Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross. ISBN 978-0879333454.
- —; Finger, Larry W. (1982). Comparative crystal chemistry : temperature, pressure, composition, and the variation of crystal structure. Chichester: Wiley. ISBN 978-0471102687.
- Hazen, Margaret Hindle; Hazen, Robert M. (1985). Wealth inexhaustible : a history of America's mineral industries to 1850. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 978-0442235109.
- Hazen, Robert M. (1988). The breakthrough : the race for the superconductor. New York: Summit Books. ISBN 978-0671658298.[60]
- Hazen, Margaret Hindle; Hazen, Robert M. (1987). The music men : an illustrated history of brass bands in America, 1800–1920. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-0874745467.
- Hazen, Robert M.; Trefil, James (1991). Science matters : achieving scientific literacy. New York: Doubleday.
- Hazen, Margaret Hindle; Hazen, Robert M. (1992). Keepers of the flame : the role of fire in American culture, 1775–1925. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691048093.
- Hazen, Robert M. (1993). The new alchemists : breaking through the barriers of high pressure. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0812922752.[61]
- —; ISBN 978-0471154402.
- — (1997). Why aren't black holes black? : the unanswered questions at the frontiers of science. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0385480147.
- — (1999). The diamond makers (Revised ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521654746.[62]
- ISBN 978-0471150589.
- Hazen, Robert M. (2005). Genesis : the scientific quest for life's origins. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry. ISBN 978-0-309-10310-7.[63]
- — (2013). The story of Earth : the first 4.5 billion years, from stardust to living planet. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143123644.
- — (2019). Symphony in C : carbon and the evolution of (almost) everything. New York: ISBN 978-0393609431.[64]
Family
Hazen's wife, Margee (née Margaret Joan Hindle), is a science writer and published historian.
References
- ^ a b c Robert M., Hazen. "Curriculum Vitae". Carnegie Science. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ Curriculum Vitae – Robert Hazen – March 2015
- ^ "About the author". The Diamond Makers. Indigo Books & Music, Inc. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ "Dan Francis Hazen Jr". Obituaries. Los Angeles Times. 18 November 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- ^ Fields, Helen (October 2010). "The Origins of Life". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ . Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ Toutant, Pamela (May 2011). "Robert Hazen" (PDF). Applause at Strathmore: 17. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ .
- ^ Hazen & Wones 1971
- ^ Hazen & Burnham 1973
- ^ Hazen & Prewitt 1977
- ^ Hazen & Finger 1982
- .
- ^ K. Brodt, H. Fuess, E. F. Paulus, W. Assmus and J. Kowalewski (1990). "Untwinned single crystals of the high-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O7-". Acta Crystallogr. C46 (3): 354–358. doi:10.1107/S0108270189006803.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-0748407729.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ISBN 978-1439849484.
- .
- ^ a b Hazen, Robert. "Career". Carnegie Science. Geophysical Laboratory. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
- ^ Hazen 2005, pp. xvi–xvii
- ^ Hazen 2005, pp. 1–8
- ^ Schirber, Michael (24 June 2014). "Hydrothermal Vents Could Explain Chemical Precursors to Life". NASA Astrobiology: Life in the Universe. NASA. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
- ^ Hazen 2005, pp. 110–111
- ISBN 978-0495388579.
- ISBN 978-3527412792.
- ISBN 978-0854041565.
- ISBN 978-3540768869.
- ^ Mann, Adam (31 October 2017). "What Mineral Evolution Tells Us About Life On Earth – And Beyond". Medium. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
- ^ Wei-Haas, Maya. "Life and Rocks May Have Co-Evolved on Earth". Smithsonian. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
- ^ Hazen, Robert. "Mineral Evolution". Carnegie Science. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ Pasero, Marco; et al. (November 2017). "The New IMA List of Minerals – A Work in Progress". The New IMA List of Minerals. IMA – CNMNC (Commission on New Minerals Nomenclature and Classification). Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
- S2CID 205042578.
- ^ Berardelli, Phil (14 November 2008). "Earth's Minerals Evolved, Too". Science. AAAS. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- S2CID 206517566.
- ^ a b "How rocks evolve". The Economist. 13 November 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- .
- S2CID 140191182.
- ^ Wilson, Elizabeth K. (21 December 2015). "Worldwide Hunt For Missing Carbon Minerals Begins". Chemical and Engineering News. American Chemical Society. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ S2CID 96565994.
- ^ PMID 17733275.
- ^ PMID 17740124.
- ^ .
- ^ Hazen, Robert M.; Trefil, James (13 January 1991). "Quick! What's a quark?". The New York Times Magazine.
- ^ PMID 17816173.
- ISBN 978-0471303008.
- ISBN 978-0471002499.
- ISBN 978-0471150589.
- ^ "Robert Hazen". Robinson Professors. George Mason University. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- ^ "Special gifts and projects 2009" (PDF). 2009 Annual Report. AAAS. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science Recipients". American Association for the Advancement of Science. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- S2CID 97885867.
- ^ "Ipatieff Prize". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ "21st Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Recipients". The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- ^ "Past Award Winners". American Crystallographic Association. Archived from the original on 1 February 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "Professor Hazen receives Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award". Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences (Press release). George Mason University. 30 January 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "The Emergence of Life on Earth...and Other Planets?". News. National Science Foundation. 8 June 2007. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturers, 2008–2009". Sigma Xi. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- ^ "Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturers, 2009–2010". Sigma Xi. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- . Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ "Robert M. Hazen IMA Medal 2021". IMA. Retrieved 2021-06-11.
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Breakthrough: The Race for the Superconductor by Robert M. Hazen". Publishers Weekly. January 1, 1988.
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: The New Alchemists: Breaking Through the Barriers of High Pressure by Robert M. Hazen". Publishers Weekly. November 29, 1993.
- S2CID 108583681.
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin by Robert M. Hazen". Publishers Weekly. July 25, 2005.
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything by Robert M. Hazen". Publishers Weekly. February 20, 2019.
- ^ Pinholster, Ginger (27 August 2010). "Nominations Needed for Public Engagement Award". AAAS. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- ^ Estrada, Louie (6 June 2001). "Brooke Hindle, 82". Washington Post. Retrieved 30 August 2018.
- ^ Center for Research Libraries. Transparency: Annual report fiscal year 2015: (July 1, 2014 – June 30, 2015) (PDF) (Report).
Further reading
- Akerlof, Karen (3 March 2008). "Professor Searches for the Genesis of Biological Systems in the Earth's Depths". The Mason Gazette. George Mason University. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
- Bradley, D. C. (23 December 2014). "Mineral evolution and Earth history". American Mineralogist. 100 (1): 4–5. S2CID 140191182.
- Fry, I. (26 May 2006). "Search for Life's Beginnings". Science. 312 (5777): 1140–1141. S2CID 161911754.
- Hamilton, Doug (13 January 2016). "Life's rocky start". Nova. Season 43. Episode 3. PBS. Transcript. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
- "Hazen Collection of Band Photographs and Ephemera, ca. 1818–1931". Archives, manuscripts, photographs catalog. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
- O'Brien, Dennis (9 July 2007). "Backyard search, prehistoric finds". Baltimore Sun.
- Oleson, Timothy (1 May 2018). "Data-driven discovery reveals Earth's missing minerals". Earth Magazine. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
- "The Sant Ocean Hall – Trilobite Collection". National Museum of Natural History. Smithsonian Institution. 2 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- "Welcome!". Digging the Fossil Record: Paleobiology at the Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- "Meet the Trilobites". The University of Arizona Mineral Museum. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
External links
- "About". Carnegie Science. Geophysical Laboratory. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
- Minerals and the Origins of Life (Robert Hazen, NASA) (video, 60m, April 2014).
- The Joy of Science (video course) (2001); Guide Book (PDF)
- Mineral Informatics: Visualizing the amazing mineral kingdom