Caltech Scientist Wins Medal for Research on Meteorites

Gerald Wasserburg of Caltech has been awarded the J. Lawrence Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences for his studies of meteorites and their ages and nuclear histories. The bronze medal carries with it a prize of $10,000. The medal, which was established in 1888 through the Smith Fund, is awarded for investigations of meteoritic bodies.

Wasserburg is the John D. MacArthur professor of geology and geophysics at Caltech. His research has concentrated on analysis of interplanetary dust, meteorites, moon rocks and terrestrial materials to study the evolution of Earth and the solar system.

Wasserburg, an Altadena resident who joined the Caltech faculty in 1955, has received numerous awards and honors, including membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the academy’s 1981 Arthur L. Day Prize and two Distinguished Service Medals from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.