Harry "Hap" Younger McSween Jr. is Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Planetary Geoscience at the

University of Tennessee at Knoxville The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1794, two years before Te ...

. He has published papers and popular books about

meteorite A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical ...

s and planetary exploration, and textbooks on geochemistry and

cosmochemistry Cosmochemistry () or chemical cosmology is the study of the chemical composition of matter in the universe and the processes that led to those compositions. This is done primarily through the study of the chemical composition of meteorites and ot ...

Biography

McSween was born September 29, 1945, in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. After finishing school he attended

The Citadel The Citadel Military College of South Carolina (simply known as The Citadel) is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1842, it is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges ...

, where he graduated with a B.S. in chemistry in 1967. He then pursued an M.S. in geology at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

, where he graduated in 1969. The title of his thesis was ''"Petrological and geochemical studies in the Coronaca area, Greenwood County, South Carolina"''. He then joined the

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

where he was a pilot flying C-141 aircraft around the world. After his military service he went on to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

, where he became John A. Wood's first graduate student. It was here that Edward Stolper and he came up with the idea that some meteorites might originate from

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. After graduating with a PhD in 1977, he joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee. He became involved with the

Mars Pathfinder ''Mars Pathfinder'' was an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a rover (space exploration), roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a Lander (spacecraft), lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a ligh ...

mission in 1997 as a member of the science team, then on the team for

Mars Global Surveyor ''Mars Global Surveyor'' (MGS) was an American Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It launched November 1996 and collected data from 1997 to 2006. MGS was a global mapping mission that examined ...

. Since then McSween has been a co-investigator on the

Mars Odyssey ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectro ...

Mars Exploration Rovers NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

and ''

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

'' asteroid orbiter missions. McSween has been the elected President of the

Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of th ...

, Chair of the Planetary Division of the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hi ...

, and Councilor and President of the Geological Society of America. He has also served on numerous advisory committees for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

and the National Research Council. In 2021, McSween was elected into the membership of the National Academy of Sciences., entry in member directory: He has received the

Leonard Medal The Leonard Medal honors outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields. It is awarded by the Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote res ...

from the

, the Leconte Medal from the South Carolina Science Council, the J. Lawrence Smith Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Whipple Award of the Planetary Science Division of the American Geophysical Union. In 2013, he was named the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Universities Professor of the Year. McSween also has an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

named for him: 5223 McSween (1981 EX6).

Publications

Books

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Peer-reviewed journal articles

He is the author of over 300

peer-review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

ed journal articles, of which the most cited are: *"What we have learned about Mars from SNC meteorites", McSween Jr, H.Y. ''Meteoritics'' Volume 29, Issue 6, 1994, Pages 757-779 *"The chemical composition of martian soil and rocks returned by the mobile alpha proton x-ray spectrometer: Preliminary results from the x-ray mode", Rieder, R.a, Economou, T., Wänke, H., Turkevich, A., Crisp, J.c, Brückner, J., Dreibus, G., McSween Jr., H.Y. ''Science'' Volume 278, Issue 5344, December 5, 1997, Pages 1771-1774.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McSween, Harold Y. American geologists Living people Meteorite researchers 1945 births The Citadel alumni University of Georgia alumni Harvard University alumni Educators from North Carolina University of Tennessee faculty Scientists from Charlotte, North Carolina Presidents of the Geological Society of America American planetary scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Biography

Publications

Books

Peer-reviewed journal articles

See also

References