Citation for presentation of the 2007 V.M. Goldschmidt Award to Guenter W. Lugmair

Abstract

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt is considered, along with V.I. Vernadsky, to be the founder of modern geochemistry. He was born in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1888, and died on his return from England to Oslo after World War II. Following on the compilation of elemental abundances in igneous rocks by Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, Goldschmidt sought the principles by which the chemical elements were distributed in minerals, igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, the "bulk earth", and the "cosmos". He completed his PhD Thesis in 1911 on "Die Kontact metamorphose in Kristiansgebeit" (now Oslo) and at age 26 was appointed director of the Mineral Institute of Oslo (see Fig. 1). Goldschmidt had a deep understanding of theory and the necessity of good data with "modern techniques" on the right samples. He had quick recognition of the connections between different areas of science, of new developments (crystal structure, ionic radii!) and of new technologies, which he applied to a host of problems in the earth sciences. Goldschmidt was appointed Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology in Gottingen, Germany, in 1929, where there was an extremely high level of scientific research in physics, chemistry and mathematics. He benefited enormously through interaction with other great scientists and persuaded the physicist R. Mannkopf to build him a high sensitivity optical spectrograph, which opened the door to revolutionary new studies. Goldschmidt was then driven out of Germany a few years later with the rise of Nazism with the accompanying violent anti-Semitism. After receiving a special edict relieving him of his duties to the Prussian State with a special edict signed by Adolph Hitler in "the name of the third Reich", he returned to Oslo in 1935. After the German invasion of Norway, he escaped to England via Sweden with the help of the Norwegian underground.

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