A former dean and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego has been awarded the most prestigious prize in the field of meteoritics, the scientific discipline concerned with the study of solar system origin, evolution and history.
Mark Thiemens, who was dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at UCSD for the last 16 years, was announced as the winner of the Leonard Medal for 2017 at the Meteoritical Society’s annual meeting in Germany. The prize was established in 1962 to honor the first president of the society, Frederick Leonard.
Thiemens is the fourth professor at UCSD to receive the award. He stepped down as dean last month to spend more time doing research.
Nobel-Prizewinning Chemist Harold Urey, won in 1969; James Arnold, the first chair of UCSD’s chemistry department and one of the first scientists to analyze the lunar samples brought back from the Apollo mission won in 1976; Finally, Hans Seuss, who collaborated on the development of the shell model of the atomic nucleus and the isotopic abundances of the elements, won in 1977.
Thiemens came to UCSD in 1980 after getting his undergraduate degree at the University of Miami, PhD from Florida State and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Fermi Institute of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago.
During his research at UCSD, Thiemens developed new techniques of understanding the composition of the early atmosphere of the Earth, life’s imprint and the evolution of Mars.
In 2006, the minor planet center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics designated a minor planet orbiting the inner part of the main asteroid belt Markthiemens in honor of his work with meteorites and extra-terrestrial materials.
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Thiemens is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a two-time winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Award and was awarded the prestigious E.O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy in 1998 and the 2009 V.M Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry.
