Stanley R. Hart
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Stanley Robert Hart (born 20 June 1935 in
Swampscott, Massachusetts Swampscott () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population was 15,111 as of the 2020 United States census. A former summer resort on Massachusetts ...
) is an American
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...
,
geochemist Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...
, leading international expert on mantle isotope geochemistry, and pioneer of chemical
geodynamics Geodynamics is a subfield of geophysics dealing with dynamics of the Earth. It applies physics, chemistry and mathematics to the understanding of how mantle convection leads to plate tectonics and geologic phenomena such as seafloor spreading, ...
.


Biography

Hart graduated from
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
with a bachelor's degree in geology in 1956 and a master's degree in geochemistry in 1957 from
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
. In 1960 he received his doctorate in geochemistry from MIT with thesis ''Mineral ages and metamorphism'' under the supervision of Patrick M. Hurley. After a year as a Carnegie Fellow, Hart was from 1961 to 1975 at 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. in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. From 1975 to 1989 he was a professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT and from 1989 to 1992 a visiting professor there. From 1989 to 2007 he was a Senior Scientist in geology and geophysics at
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, acronym pronounced ) is a private, nonprofit research and higher education facility dedicated to the study of marine science and engineering. Established in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, it i ...
. He retired from Woods Hole in 2007 as Scientist Emeritus. Hart is a leading pioneer in the introduction of geochemistry into the Earth sciences. He developed comparative geochronology, which accounts for geological perturbations in various geochronometers. At the Carnegie Institution of Washington, he worked with
George Wetherill George Wetherill (August 12, 1925 – July 19, 2006) was an American physicist and geologist. He was the director emeritus of the department of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 2000, Wetherill received the J. ...
, George Tilton, L. T. Aldrich, and G. L. Davis on mapping Precambrian rocks in the USA using comparative geochronology. There Hart became the leader of a group including Thomas Krogh, Albrecht Hofmann, Christopher Brooks, and others. According to
Claude Allègre Claude Allègre (; 31 March 1937 – 4 January 2025) was a French politician and scientist. His work in the field of isotope geochemistry was recognised with the award of many senior medals, including the Crafoord Prize for geosciences in 1986 ...
: Hart focused on the application of isotopic chemistry to age determination in geology, the geochemical evolution of mantle and oceanic
lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the lithospheric mantle, the topmost portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time ...
, and the geochemistry of strontium, neodymium, and lead isotopes in volcanic rocks. He also studied the long-term behavior of the chemical composition of the oceans due to their interaction with the oceanic crust and the experimental determination of fundamental geochemical properties such as mineral-melt partition coefficients in silicates and solid-state diffusion rates. In 1968, together with John S. Steinhart, he published the Steinhart-Hart equation, which provides a mathematical model of how the temperature and the
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 ...
of a
thermistor A thermistor is a semiconductor type of resistor in which the resistance is strongly dependent on temperature. The word ''thermistor'' is a portmanteau of ''thermal'' and ''resistor''. The varying resistance with temperature allows these devices ...
vary, based upon 3 so-called Steinhart-Hart coefficients.John S. Steinhart, Stanley R. Hart, Calibration curves for thermistors, Deep-Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts, Volume 15, Issue 4, August 1968, Pages 497–503, ISSN 0011-7471, . He was a co-editor from 1970 to 1972 of the ''
Reviews of Geophysics ''Reviews of Geophysics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American Geophysical Union. The current editor-in-chief is Fabio Florindo (National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology– ...
'', from 1970 to 1976 of the ''
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta for, la, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Geochemical and Cosmochemical Journal is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1950 and is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Meteoritical Soc ...
'', and from 1975 to 1992 of ''
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors ''Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors'', established in October 1967, is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. The co-editors are A. Ferreira (University College London), K. Hirose (Tokyo Institute of Technolo ...
''. In 1975/76 he chaired the US National Committee for Geochemistry. His doctoral students include Erik Hauri. Hart has three children, one daughter from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1978, and a son and a daughter from his second marriage which began in 1980.


Awards and honors

* 1983 — Member of the National Academy of Sciences * 1985–1987 — President of the
Geochemical Society The Geochemical Society is a nonprofit scientific organization founded to encourage the application of chemistry to solve problems involving geology and cosmology. The society promotes understanding of geochemistry through the annual Goldschmidt Co ...
* 1992 —
V. M. Goldschmidt Award The V. M. Goldschmidt Award is an award given by the Geochemical Society at the V. M. Goldschmidt Conference for achievements in the fields of geochemistry and cosmochemistry. The award in honor of Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, a pioneer in both thos ...
, Geochemical Society * 1997 — Harry Hess Medal,
American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...
* 2005 — Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* 2008 — Arthur L. Day Prize and Lectureship * 2016 —
William Bowie Medal The William Bowie Medal is awarded annually by the American Geophysical Union for "outstanding contributions to fundamental geophysics and for unselfish cooperation in research". The award is the highest honor given by the AGU and is named in honor ...


Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Stanley Robert 20th-century American geologists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty American geochemists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Geophysical Union 1935 births Living people Presidents of the Geochemical Society Recipients of the V. M. Goldschmidt Award