Herbert Eugene Merwin (20 February 20 1878,

Newton, Kansas Newton is a city in and the county seat of Harvey County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 18,602. Newton is located north of Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. The city of North ...

– 29 January 1963,

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

) was an American mineralogist and petrologist. Merwin grew up in

Hensonville, New York Hensonville is a hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set ...

after moving there with his family when he was two years old. After graduating from high school, he taught for several years in New York State public high schools and at the Normal School in Oneonta. He then studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he received his bachelor's degree in 1907 and his Ph.D. in 1911. He became in 1909 a staff member of the Geophysical Laboratory of the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

in Washington, D.C., and was employed there until his retirement in 1945. After retirement he continued there as a research associate until 1959. He was considered a leading authority on crystal optics. He was president in 1931 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, ...

, whose

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. ...

he received in 1949. The mineral merwinite is named in his honor.

Selected publications

* '' Some late Wisconsin and post-Wisconsin shore-lines of northwestern Vermont '', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Printed for the Museum, 1908 * ''Mineralogical and petrographical researches, with special reference to the stability ranges of the alkaline feldspars'', Ph. D. Harvard University 1911 * with George Atwater Rankin: * with G. A. Rankin: * with Eugen Posnjak: * with John Bright Ferguson: * with E. Posnjak: * with Howard Shreve Roberts: * with Robert Hamilton Lombard:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merwin, Herbert E American mineralogists Petrologists Harvard University alumni 1878 births 1963 deaths