Robert M. Hazen
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Robert Miller Hazen (born November 1, 1948) is an American
mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...
and
astrobiologist Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the life and environmental sciences that studies the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe by investigating its deterministic condi ...
. He is a research scientist at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington 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 W ...
's Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at
George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
, in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Hazen is the Executive Director of the
Deep Carbon Observatory The Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) is a global research program designed to transform understanding of carbon's role in Earth. DCO is a community of scientists, including biologists, physicists, geoscientists and chemists, whose work crosses severa ...
.


Early life

Hazen was born in
Rockville Centre Rockville Centre, commonly abbreviated as RVC, is an incorporated village located in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 26,016 at the time of the 2020 cen ...
, New York, on November 1, 1948. His parents were Peggy Hazen (''née'' Dorothy Ellen Chapin; 1918–2002) and Dan Hazen (''né'' Daniel Francis Hazen, Jr.; 1918–2016). He spent his early childhood in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, near a fossil quarry where he collected his first
trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three-lobed entities") are extinction, extinct marine arthropods that form the class (biology), class Trilobita. One of the earliest groups of arthropods to appear in the fossil record, trilobites were among the most succ ...
at the age of about 9. The Hazen family moved to
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, where Robert's eight-grade teacher, Bill Welsh, observed Robert's interest in his collection of minerals. Hazen later recalled "He gave me a starter collection of 100 specimens, mineral field guides, and mimeographed directions to Paterson and Franklin, New Jersey." Hazen also had an early interest in music, starting with the piano at age 5, the violin at 6 and the trumpet at age 9.


Education

Hazen worked on his B.S. and S.M. (Master of Science) in Earth Science at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
1971. He started with the intention of going into chemical engineering, but he was captivated by the enthusiasm of David Wones and converted to
mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical mineralogy, optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifact (archaeology), artifacts. Specific s ...
. With Wones as advisor, he completed a masters thesis on
cation An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...
substitution in trioctahedral micas; his publication in ''
American Mineralogist ''American Mineralogist: An International Journal of Earth and Planetary Materials'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the general fields of mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, and petrology. It is an official journal of the Mi ...
'' was his first to be highly cited. He completed a Ph.D. in Mineralogy & Crystallography 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 ...
in 1975. His thesis, with Charles Burnham as advisor, involved learning how to use a 4-circle
diffractometer A diffractometer is a measuring instrument for analyzing the structure of a material from the scattering pattern produced when a beam of radiation or particles (such as X-rays or neutrons) interacts with it. Principle A typical diffractometer c ...
to do high-pressure
X-ray crystallography X-ray crystallography is the experimental science of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to Diffraction, diffract in specific directions. By measuring th ...
and applying it to
olivine The mineral olivine () is a magnesium iron Silicate minerals, silicate with the chemical formula . It is a type of Nesosilicates, nesosilicate or orthosilicate. The primary component of the Earth's upper mantle (Earth), upper mantle, it is a com ...
. This became a focus of his early career. While a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
in England, Hazen worked with Charles Prewitt to determine empirical relations for the effect of temperature and pressure on interatomic distances in
oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion (anion bearing a net charge of −2) of oxygen, an O2− ion with oxygen in the oxidation st ...
s and
silicate A silicate is any member of a family of polyatomic anions consisting of silicon and oxygen, usually with the general formula , where . The family includes orthosilicate (), metasilicate (), and pyrosilicate (, ). The name is also used ...
s.


Geophysical Laboratory

In 1976, Hazen joined the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory as a research associate. After a brief stint measuring optical properties of lunar minerals with Peter Bell and David Mao, he started to do X-ray crystallography with Larry Finger. He later recalled, "It was a match made in mineralogical heaven: Larry loved to write code, build machines, and analyze data; I loved to mount crystals, run the diffractometers, and write papers." They collaborated for two decades and determined about a thousand crystal structures at variable pressures and temperatures, work summarized in their 1982 book ''Comparative Crystal Chemistry''. Much of the work that Hazen was doing could be classified as
mineral physics Mineral physics is the science of materials that compose the interior of planets, particularly the Earth. It overlaps with petrophysics, which focuses on whole-rock properties. It provides information that allows interpretation of surface measure ...
, a cross between
geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and Physical property, properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct i ...
and mineralogy. Although the field had pioneering contributions from the
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
winner
Percy Bridgman Percy Williams Bridgman (April 21, 1882 – August 20, 1961) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 for his work on the physics of high pressures. He also wrote extensively on the scientific method and on other ...
and a student of his, Francis Birch, in the early- to mid-20th century, it did not have a name until the 1960s, and in the 1970s some scientists were concerned that a more interdisciplinary approach was needed to understand the relationship between interatomic forces and mineral properties. Hazen and Prewitt co-convened the first mineral physics conference; it was held on October 17–19, 1977 at the Airlie House in
Warrenton, Virginia Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat. The population was 10,057 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, an increase from 9,611 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and 6,670 at ...
.


High-temperature superconductors

Cooled to very low temperatures, some materials experience a sudden transition where
electrical resistance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual paral ...
drops to zero and any
magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...
s are expelled. This phenomenon is called
superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...
. Superconductors have a host of applications including powerful
electromagnet An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by an electric current. Electromagnets usually consist of wire (likely copper) wound into a electromagnetic coil, coil. A current through the wire creates a magnetic ...
s, fast
digital circuits Digital electronics is a field of electronics involving the study of digital signals and the engineering of devices that use or produce them. It deals with the relationship between binary inputs and outputs by passing electrical signals through ...
and sensitive magnetometers, but the very low temperatures needed make the applications more difficult and expensive. Until the 1980s, no superconductors existed above . Then in 1986 two IBM researchers,
Georg Bednorz Johannes Georg Bednorz (; born 16 May 1950) is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics. Life and work Bednorz was bor ...
and K. Alex Müller, found a
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...
material with a critical temperature of . This set off a frenzied search for higher critical temperatures. A group led by Paul Chu at the
University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...
explored some materials made of
yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost a ...
,
barium Barium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Th ...
,
copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
and
oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...
(YCBO) and were the first to obtain a critical temperature above the boiling point of
liquid nitrogen Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is nitrogen in a liquid state at cryogenics, low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about . It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, mobile liquid whose vis ...
. The YCBO samples had a mixture of black and green minerals, and although the researchers knew the average composition, they did not know the compositions of the two phases. In February 1987, Chu turned to Mao and Hazen, because they could determine the composition of small mineral grains in rocks. It took Mao and Hazen a week to determine the compositions; the black phase, which turned out to be the superconductor, was YBa2Cu3O7−δ. Mao and Hazen determined that the crystal structure of the superconducting phase was like that of
perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as , known as the perovskite (stru ...
, an important mineral in
Earth's mantle Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate mineral, silicate rock between the Earth's crust, crust and the Earth's outer core, outer core. It has a mass of and makes up 67% of the mass of Earth. It has a thickness of making up about 46% of Earth's ...
. Subsequently, Hazen's group identified twelve more high-temperature oxide superconductors, all with perovskite structures, and worked on
organic superconductor An organic superconductor is a synthetic organic compound that exhibits superconductivity at low temperatures. As of 2007 the highest achieved critical temperature for an organic superconductor at standard pressure is , observed in the alkali-dope ...
s.


Origins of life

By the mid-1990s, Hazen felt that his research had reached a "respectable plateau" where the main principles of how crystals compress were known. The questions he was asking were increasingly narrow and the answers rarely surprising. So he changed research directions to study life's chemical origins. This opportunity came when a colleague at
George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...
, Harold Morowitz, realized that the temperature and pressure at a
hydrothermal vent Hydrothermal vents are fissures on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hot ...
might change the properties of water, allowing chemical reactions that ordinarily require the help of an
enzyme An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...
. Enlisting the help of
Hatten Yoder Hatten Schuyler Yoder, Jr., (March 20, 1921 – August 2, 2003) was a geophysicist and experimental petrologist who conducted pioneering work on minerals under high pressure and temperature. He was noted for his study of silicates and igneous rocks. ...
, a specialist in high pressure mineralogy, they tried subjecting
pyruvate Pyruvic acid (CH3COCOOH) is the simplest of the alpha-keto acids, with a carboxylic acid and a ketone functional group. Pyruvate, the conjugate base, CH3COCOO−, is an intermediate in several metabolic pathways throughout the cell. Pyruvic ...
in water to high pressure, hoping for a simple reaction that would return
oxaloacetate Oxaloacetic acid (also known as oxalacetic acid or OAA) is a crystalline organic compound with the chemical formula HO2CC(O)CH2CO2H. Oxaloacetic acid, in the form of its conjugate base oxaloacetate, is a metabolic intermediate in many processes ...
. Instead, an analysis by an organic geochemist, George Cody, found that they obtained tens of thousands of molecules. The publication of their results, which seemed to support the deep sea vent hypothesis, met with heavy criticism, especially from
Stanley Miller Stanley Lloyd Miller (March 7, 1930 – May 20, 2007) was an American chemist who made important experiments concerning the origin of life Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from abiotic component, non-living matter, ...
and colleagues who believe that life emerged on the surface. Along with the general criticism that organic compounds would not survive long in hot, high pressure conditions, they pointed out several flaws in the experiment. In his book, ''Genesis'', Hazen acknowledges that Stanley Miller "was basically right" about the experiments, but argues that "the art of science isn't necessarily to avoid mistakes; rather, progress is often made by making mistakes as fast as possible, while avoiding making the same mistake twice." In subsequent work, the group formed biomolecules from carbon dioxide and water and catalyzed the formation of amino acids using oxides and sulfides of
transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. The lanthanide and actinid ...
s; and different transition elements catalyze different organic reactions.


Homochirality

Organic molecules often come in two mirror-image forms, often referred to as "right-handed" and "left-handed". This handedness is called
chirality Chirality () is a property of asymmetry important in several branches of science. The word ''chirality'' is derived from the Greek (''kheir''), "hand", a familiar chiral object. An object or a system is ''chiral'' if it is distinguishable fro ...
. For example, the
amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...
alanine Alanine (symbol Ala or A), or α-alanine, is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an amine group and a carboxylic acid group, both attached to the central carbon atom which also carries a methyl group sid ...
comes in a right-handed (D-alanine) and a left-handed (L-alanine) form. Living cells are very selective, choosing
amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...
s only in the left-handed form and
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
s in the right-handed form. However, most abiotic processes produce an equal amount of each. Somehow life must have developed this preference (
homochirality Homochirality is a uniformity of chirality, or handedness. Objects are chiral when they cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, the left and right hands of a human are approximately mirror images of each other but are not their ow ...
); but while scientists have proposed several theories, they have no consensus on the mechanism. Hazen investigated the possibility that organic molecules might acquire a chiral asymmetry when grown on the faces of mineral crystals. Some, like
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
, come in mirror-image forms; others, like
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
, are symmetric about their centers but their faces come in pairs with opposite chirality. With Tim Filley, an expert at organic chemical analysis, and Glenn Goodfriend, a geochemist, Hazen cleaned large
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
crystals and dipped them into
aspartic acid Aspartic acid (symbol Asp or D; the ionic form is known as aspartate), is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. The L-isomer of aspartic acid is one of the 22 proteinogenic amino acids, i.e., the building blocks of protei ...
. They found that each face of the crystal had a small preference for either left- or right-handed forms of aspartate. They proposed that a similar mechanism might work on other amino acids and sugars. This work attracted a lot of interest from the pharmaceutical industry, which needs to produce some of their drugs with a pure chirality.


Mineral evolution

At a Christmas party in 2006, the biophysicist Harold Morowitz asked Hazen whether there were clay minerals during the
Archean The Archean ( , also spelled Archaean or Archæan), in older sources sometimes called the Archaeozoic, is the second of the four geologic eons of Earth's history of Earth, history, preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic and t ...
Eon. Hazen could not recall a mineralogist ever having asked whether a given mineral existed in a given era, and it occurred to him that no one had ever explored how Earth's mineralogy changed over time. He worked on this question for a year with his closest colleague, geochemist Dimitri Sverjensky at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, and some other collaborators including a mineralogist, Robert Downs; a
petrologist Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks, their mineralogy, composition, texture, structure and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous an ...
, John Ferry; and a
geobiologist Geobiology is a field of scientific research that explores the interactions between the physical Earth and the biosphere. It is a relatively young field, and its borders are fluid. There is considerable overlap with the fields of ecology, evoluti ...
, Dominic Papineau. The result was a paper in ''American Mineralogist'' that provided a new historical context to mineralogy that they called mineral evolution. Based on a review of the literature, Hazen and his co-authors estimated that the number of minerals in the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
has grown from about a dozen at the time of its formation to over 4300 at present. (As of 2017, the latter number has grown to 5300.). They predicted that there was a systematic increase in the number of mineral species over time, and identified three main eras of change: the formation of the Solar System and planets; the reworking of crust and mantle and the onset of
plate tectonics Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...
; and the appearance of life. After the first era, there were 250 minerals; after the second, 1500. The remainder were made possible by the action of living organisms, particularly the addition of oxygen to the atmosphere. This paper was followed over the next few years by several studies concentrating on one chemical element at a time and mapping out the first appearances of minerals involving each element.


Deep Carbon Observatory

Hazen and his colleagues started the
Carbon Mineral Challenge The Carbon Mineral Challenge is a citizen science project dedicated to accelerating the discovery of carbon-bearing minerals. The program launched in 2015 December with sponsorship from the Deep Carbon Observatory. The project ended in 2019 Septe ...
, a citizen science project dedicated to accelerating the discovery of "missing" carbon-bearing
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
s.


Teaching

As the Clarence B. Robinson Professor at George Mason University, Hazen developed innovative courses to promote
scientific literacy Scientific literacy or science literacy encompasses written, numerical, and digital literacy as they pertain to understanding science, its methodology, observations, and theories. Scientific literacy is chiefly concerned with an understanding ...
in both scientists and non-scientists. With physicist
James Trefil James Stanley Trefil (born September 10, 1938) is an American physicist (Ph.D. in physics at Stanford University in 1966) and author of nearly fifty books. Much of his published work focuses on science for the general audience. He has served as ...
, he developed a course that they described as "science appreciation", aimed at non-scientists. It was organized around a total of 20 "Great Ideas of Science" that were later reduced to 18. In addition to writing about their ideas in several magazines, they turned the course into a book, ''Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy.'' They used the principles to organize explanations of a "vast number of socially significant, fundamental, or environmentally crucial topics." This was published with an amount of advance publicity that was unusual for a popular science book, including an article they wrote for the ''
New York Times Sunday Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...
'', praise from prolific author
Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ;  – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...
and physics Nobelist
Leon Lederman Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...
, and a publicity tour. For an article in ''
Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
'' about the book, they provided the author with the original list of 20 ideas and invited readers to send in their comments. About 200 readers responded, generally supporting the idea of such a list while vehemently criticizing many of the particulars, including an informal style and sometimes vague language. Particularly criticized were numbers 1 ("The universe is regular and predictable") and 16 ("Everything on the earth operates in cycles"). Hazen and Trefil argued, in defense of point 1, that it was not intended as a defense of determinism and that they covered unpredictable phenomena like
chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Science, technology, and astronomy * '' Chaos: Making a New Science'', a 1987 book by James Gleick * Chaos (company), a Bulgarian rendering and simulation software company * ''Chaos'' (genus), a genus of amoebae * ...
; but they also used the responses to modify the list of ideas in subsequent editions. Hazen and Trefil went on to write three undergraduate textbooks: ''The Sciences: An Integrated Approach'' (1993), ''The Physical Sciences: An Integrated Approach'' (1995), and ''Physics Matters: An Introduction to Conceptual Physics'' (2004). Hazen used these as the basis for a 60-lecture video and audio course called '' The Joy of Science''.


Public engagement

In 2008, Hazen was an outgoing member of the AAAS Committee on Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He and his wife Margee, noting that it is important for scientists to engage with the public but actually doing so does not help them get tenure, proposed a new award, The Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science, and established a fund for it. The first award, with a monetary prize of $5,000, was announced in 2010.


Honors

Hazen is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
. 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, ...
presented Hazen with the Mineralogical Society of America Award in 1982 and the Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2009. In 2016, he received its highest award, 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. ...
. He also served as Distinguished Lecturer and is a Past President of the Society. A mineral that was discovered in
Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a Salt lake, saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes Hypersaline lake, high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake ...
was named hazenite in his honor by Hexiong Yang, a former student of his. In 1986, Hazen received the Ipatieff Prize, which the
American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...
awards in recognition of "outstanding chemical experimental work in the field of catalysis or high pressure". For the book ''The Music Men'', he and his wife Margaret received the
Deems Taylor Award Joseph Deems Taylor (December 22, 1885 – July 3, 1966) was an American composer, radio commentator, music critic, and author. Nat Benchley, co-editor of ''The Lost Algonquin Roundtable'', referred to him as "the dean of American music." He was ...
from the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...
in 1989. For his popular and educational science writing, Hazen received the E.A. Wood Science Writing Award from the
American Crystallographic Association The American Crystallographic Association, Inc. (ACA) is a non-profit, scientific organization for scientists who study the structure of matter via crystallographic methodologies. Since its founding in 1949 it has amassed over 2000 members worldwi ...
in 1998, In 2012, the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia presented Hazen with its Outstanding Faculty Award. Hazen has presented numerous named lectures at universities. He gave a Directorate for Biological Sciences Distinguished Lecture at the
National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...
in 2007, and was named the
Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...
Distinguished Lecturer for 2008–2010. In 2019, Hazen was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2021, Hazen was awarded the Medal of Excellence in Mineralogical Sciences from the
International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. ...
.


Publications

Hazen is author of more than 350 articles and 20 books on science, history, and music.


Refereed articles

Hazen has 289 refereed publications that have been cited a total of over 11,000 times, for an h-index of 58. A selection of articles follows: * * * * * * * * * *


Books

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Family

Hazen's wife, Margee ''(née'' Margaret Joan Hindle), is a science writer and published historian. Her late father, Howard Brooke Hindle, PhD (1918–2001), was a historian who studied the role of
material culture Material culture is culture manifested by the Artifact (archaeology), physical objects and architecture of a society. The term is primarily used in archaeology and anthropology, but is also of interest to sociology, geography and history. The fie ...
in the history of the United States and served as Director of the
National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...
from 1974 to 1978. Hazen's late brother, Dan Chapin Hazen, PhD (1947–2015), was an academic research librarian who had been affiliated with the libraries at
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 ...
, and was particularly recognized for his accomplishments to the
Center for Research Libraries The Center for Research Libraries (also known by its acronym, CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research library, research libraries, based on a buy-in concept for membership of the consortia. The con ...
and advocacy of collections from Latin America. Harvard has memorialized Dan Hazen by establishing two
chairs A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or Upholstery, upholstered ...
in his name. The Hazens have two children: Benjamin Hindle Hazen (born 1976) and Elizabeth Brooke Hazen (born 1978).


References


Further reading

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External links

*
Minerals and the Origins of Life
(Robert Hazen,
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 ...
) (video, 60m, April 2014).
''The Joy of Science'' (video course) (2001)

Mineral Informatics: Visualizing the amazing mineral kingdom
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hazen, Robert 1948 births Living people Harvard University alumni George Mason University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American mineralogists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni American astrobiologists American science writers People from Rockville Centre, New York Scientists from New York (state) Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Solid state chemists