Alexander Newton Winchell (2 March 1874 - 7 June 1958) was an American geologist who pioneered spectroscopic and X-ray crystallographic studies on minerals. He wrote an influential textbook, the ''Elements of optical mineralogy'' which went into several editions. Winchell was born in Minneapolis to Newton Horace and Charlotte Sophia. He was educated at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

with a BS in 1896 and MS in 1897 under

Charles Peter Berkey Charles Peter Berkey (March 25, 1867-April 22, 1955) was an American geologist, notable as a founder of the discipline of engineering geology, for his work on the great dams of the 1930s, and as chief geologist on the Gobi Desert expeditions in Mon ...

. He then studied in Paris under

Alfred Lacroix Antoine François Alfred Lacroix (4 February 186312 March 1948), known as Alfred Lacroix, was a French mineralogist and geologist. He was born in Mâcon, Saône-et-Loire. Education Alfred Lacroix completed a D. s Sc. in Paris in 1889, as stud ...

receiving a DSc in 1900. He then joined the Montana School of Mines and later the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He worked on applications of X-ray crystallography to mineralogy, working with

Linus Pauling Linus Carl Pauling ( ; February 28, 1901August 19, 1994) was an American chemist and peace activist. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. ''New Scientist'' called him one of the 20 gre ...

, W.H. Taylor and W.L. Bragg. He also consulted for the

US Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...

, the

American Cyanamid American Cyanamid Company was an American manufacturing conglomerate. It began as a fertilizer company and added many additional lines of business before merging with American Home Products in 1994. The combined company sold off most of its di ...

Company and was a visiting professor at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Winchell married Clare Edith Christello in 1898 and they had five children, several of whom continued in geology. After the death of Clare in 1932, he married his first cousin once removed Florence Mabel Sylvester (granddaughter of

Alexander Winchell Alexander Winchell (December 31, 1824, in North East, New York – February 19, 1891, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) was an American geologist who contributed to this field mainly as an educator and a popular lecturer and writer. His views on evolutio ...

). He received the

Roebling medal The Roebling Medal is the highest award of the Mineralogical Society of America for scientific eminence as represented primarily by scientific publication of outstanding original research in mineralogy. The award is named for Colonel Washington A. ...

of the

Mineralogical Society of America The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) is a scientific membership organization. MSA was founded in 1919 for the advancement of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology, and promotion of their uses in other sciences, industry, ...

in 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winchell, Alexander Newton 1958 deaths 1874 births American geologists Columbia University faculty Montana Technological University faculty United States Geological Survey personnel University of Minnesota alumni University of Virginia faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty