Presentation of the 2017 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America to Edward Stolper

Abstract

The Roebling Medal recognizes outstanding research in mineral sciences, and this year's medalist—Edward Stolper—conducts experiments that are arguably the most original and innovative of this generation. His interpretations and insights often upend current thinking and, in the process, turn misconceptions and nonsense into solid gold. Ed's early research, conducted when he was a student, focused on extraterrestrial materials. As an undergraduate, he analyzed the chemistry of lunar green glasses returned by Apollo astronauts. For his Master's thesis at Edinburg, he determined that eucrites—basalts from asteroid Vesta—cluster near the olivine-pyroxene-plagioclase peritectic, suggesting an origin by partial melting rather than fractional crystallization. As a Harvard doctoral student, his insight prompted the first recognition that shergottite meteorites are martian basalts, and his experiments defined the nature of the Mars mantle source region. These seminal papers, now nearly four decades old, are still referenced as state-of-the-art insights into planetary magmatism.

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