News

James J. Papike passed away on Dec. 21, 2020, at the age of 83. He was emeritus director of the Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico and Fellow of the Meteoritical Society. He was active in and had been an officer or councilor in the Mineralogical Society of America (president), the American Geophysical Union, the Geochemical Society (president), the Society of Economic Geologists, the National Academy of Sciences, the Universities Space Research Association, and numerous other professional organizations. More…

H. Jay Melosh (Purdue University) passed away on September 11, 2020, after a five-decade career in impact geophysics. Jay received the Barringer Medal (1999) and was a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society. More…

John Taylor Wasson, Emeritus Professor in UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, passed away peacefully at his long-time home in Los Angeles on September 8, 2020, at the age of 86. He had suffered a stroke in January, but had courageously battled back, improving in many ways, before his sudden passing. John was passionate about meteorites and what their properties reveal about the formation and early evolution of the Solar System. Over a research career spanning six decades, he left a rich legacy of contributions to meteoritics and planetary science. More…

Over 18 years at Northern Arizona University, Nadine ascended the academic ranks, becoming Department Chair of Astronomy and Planetary Science. She received numerous awards for teaching excellence. Doubling the size of the Department, she grew its curriculum into a Ph.D.-granting program. More…

Our colleague, friend, and long time member of the Society, Richard (Dick) Pugh passed away yesterday (June 15) from complications associated with liver failure. His passing was peaceful and at home. More…

William A. (Bill) Cassidy, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Geology and Planetary Science of the University of Pittsburgh, passed away quietly in his home in Monroeville, PA on March 25, 2020, at the age of 92. Bill leaves behind a deep legacy of contributions to the fields of impact crater studies and meteoritics. More…

Bruce Forbes Bohor, the 2011 Barringer Medalist of the Meteoritical Society (Glass, 2011), passed away at his home in Green Valley, Arizona, on November 17, 2019. Bruce is best known in our community for his discovery of shocked quartz in layers marking the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T, now called the Cretaceous-Paleogene, K-Pg) boundary in the central United States in the early 1980s, following the famous paper by Alvarez and co-authors in Science in 1980, in which they report geochemical evidence for an asteroid impact from K-Pg layers in Italy. More…

The meteoritical community lost a remarkable scientist, mentor, colleague and friend with the passing of Edward J. Olsen on January 30, 2020 at his home in Madison, Wisconsin. Ed is survived by his wife of 38 years, Lorain Olsen, his daughters Andrea Southwood and Ericka Olsen and his grandson Jacob Taggart. More…

Ahmed El Goresy died at his home in Heidelberg on October 3, 2019, at the age of 85. Ahmed El Goresy was a highly regarded mineralogist with a worldwide reputation. His research focused on minerals and mineral assemblages of extraterrestrial samples. With his major tool, reflected light microscopy, he studied meteorite samples from asteroids, Moon, and Mars, and lunar rocks and terrestrial impactites. More…

Prof. Laurel Wilkening, a meteoriticist, university administrator, and advocate for planetary science and for women’s issues, passed away on June 4, 2019, in Tucson, Arizona, at the age of 74. Born in Richland, Washington, on Nov. 23, 1944, she grew up in Socorro, New Mexico, and got her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Reed College. More…