Acceptance of the 2017 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America

Abstract

Thank you, Hap, for that very kind introduction; my friendship and professional relationship with you go back very far, and some of my most enjoyable work has been done with you, so I particularly appreciate your introducing me today. I also want to thank the MSA, those of you who have come to this luncheon, and those who participated in this morning's symposium on “Petrology Across the Solar System”—which was fun and filled with great talks and required people to come a long way. It is all very humbling, particularly when I look at the list of previous recipients extending back to 1929, including people whom I never knew, but whose influence on our field is legendary—Bowen, Schairer, Tilley, Buddington, Khorshkinskii, and so many more; people from generations ahead of me but whom I know (or in some cases, knew) well and whose influence on me personally and professionally has been profound, and about whom I think often for what they taught me that continues to resonate for me—Jim Thompson, Ian Carmichael, Peter Wyllie, and both Don Lindsley and Gary Ernst who are here today; and more recently, people from my cohort who are my friends and whose work shapes and defines in our own time the fields represented by the MSA. I am honored to have my name added to the list.