Brian J. Skinner

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Brian John Skinner (born December 15, 1928 in Wallaroo , South Australia - † August 21, 2019 ) was an Australian geologist , geochemist and mineralogist .

Career

Skinner, the son of a bank manager, went to school in Adelaide and graduated from the University of Adelaide with a bachelor's degree in 1949 (geology, chemistry). He then briefly worked as a mining geologist at a tin mine in Tasmania before continuing his studies at Harvard University with a master's degree in 1952 and a doctorate in geology in 1954. During his studies, he worked for mining companies in Canada and Colorado . He was then a lecturer in crystallography at the University of Adelaide until 1958 and then at the US Geological Survey . In 1961 he became head of the Experimental Mineralogy and Geochemistry Department. In 1966 he became a professor at Yale University , from 1972 as Eugene Higgins Professor of Geology and Geophysics. From 1967 to 1973 he was head of the faculty.

He dealt experimentally and theoretically with the formation of ores and the gangue minerals occurring with them . He dealt with the volume properties of minerals and rock behavior at high temperatures (e.g. crystallization of sulfides from basalt magmas in Hawaii, investigation of the solubility of sulfides in silicate melts) and is an expert on sulfide minerals, but also dealt with minerals of the platinum group, antimony-arsenic minerals and sulfosalts . He was the first to recognize the importance of organic sulfur in the formation of ore deposits at low temperatures and observed sulfide precipitation in the Salton Sea . He named five new types of mineral. Skinner dealt with various ore and mineral deposits and resource management of minerals.

Several textbooks on geology come from him.

In 1985 he was President of the Geological Society of America and 1973 of the Geochemical Society. In 1979 he was the Alexander Du Toit Memorial Lecturer in South Africa. In 1981 he received the silver medal of the Society of Economic Geologists , of which he was president in 1995. He received the Geological Association of Canada Medal and was honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto and the Colorado School of Mines . In 2005 he received the Penrose Gold Medal .

From 1970 he was editor of Economic Geology. From 1973 to 1975 he was chairman of the Mineral Resources and Environment Committee of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council.

He was married to the geologist H. Catherine Wild. As a hobby he played tennis and watched birds.

Fonts

  • Mineral Resources of North America, in: Geology of North America, Volume A, Chapter 20, Geological Society of America 1989
  • Editor with Paul Hancock: Oxford Companion to the Earth, Oxford University Press 2000
  • with Barbara Murck: Blue Planet An Introduction to Earth System Science, 3rd edition, Wiley 2011
  • with Barbara W. Murck: Geology today: understanding our planet, Wiley 1999
  • with Stephen C. Porter, Jeffrey Park: The Dynamic Earth: An Introduction to Physical Geology, 5th edition, Wiley 2003
  • with Barbara Murck: Visualizing Geology, Wiley, 4th edition 2015
  • with Zeeya Merali: Visualizing Earth Science, Wiley 2009
  • with James Craig, David Vaughan: Resources of the Earth, Prentice Hall 1988
  • with Barbara Murck, Stephen C. Porter: Environmental Geology, Wiley 1996
  • with Richard V. Dietrich: The rocks and their minerals. An introduction and identification book. Ott, Thun 1984
  • with Robert B. Gordon, Tjalling Koopmans, William D. Nordhaus: Toward a New Iron Age? Quantitative Model of Resource Exhaustion, Harvard UP 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Life and career data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ^ In memoriam: Brian Skinner, world-renowned geologist, beloved teacher. In: YaleNews. August 28, 2019, accessed on August 29, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Skinner, Brian J.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Skinner, Brian John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian geologist, geochemist and mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Wallaroo
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 2019