Klaus Keil (November 15, 1934 – February 25, 2022) was a professor at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Hawaiʻi system and houses the main offic ...

. He was the former Director of the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. He was also the former director of the University of New Mexico Institute of Meteoritics. Klaus pioneered the use of the

electron microprobe An electron microprobe (EMP), also known as an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) or electron micro probe analyzer (EMPA), is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. I ...

to study

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 ...

samples. He was one of the co-inventors of the energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. In 1988, Klaus won 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 ...

, which is awarded by 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 ...

. In 2006, he won the J. Lawrence Smith Medal, which is awarded by the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. These awards are for his pioneering quantitative studies of minerals in meteorites and important contributions to understanding the nature, origin, and evolution of their parent bodies.

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 ...

5054 Keil 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

and the mineral

keilite Keilite is an iron-magnesium sulfide mineral with the chemical formula that is found in enstatite chondrites. Keilite is the iron-dominant analog of niningerite. Keilite is named after Klaus Keil (born 1934). Occurrences Examples of keilite oc ...

are named after Klaus. Klaus is the father of professional tennis players

Mark Keil Mark Keil (born June 3, 1967) is a former professional tennis player from the United States who won five ATP Tour doubles tournaments and was runner up at eight more. Early life and college Prior to college, Keil was raised in Albuquerque, N ...

and

Kathrin Keil Kathrin Keil Sieberth (born November 28, 1962) is a former professional tennis player from the United States. Her surname is pronounced "Kyle". Biography Keil grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she moved to from California at the age of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keil, Klaus 1934 births 2022 deaths German emigrants to the United States University of Hawaiʻi faculty Meteorite researchers American scientists Scientists from Hamburg American people of German descent People from Hamburg

See also

References