Caltech Professor to Share Grant in Isotope Geology

Caltech Prof. Gerald J. Wasserburg will split a $138,000 scientific award from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with a French scientist for work in the field of isotope geology, which involves the study of the Earth and its relationship to the solar system. Wasserburg, a 59-year-old Altadena resident, and Claude Allegre of the University of Paris will receive the Crafoord Prize in ceremonies in Stockholm on Sept. 24.

Wasserburg has taught geology and geophysics at Caltech for 30 years and has played major roles in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s interplanetary programs, particularly the Apollo moon landings. He was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal in 1973 and 1978.

Wasserburg said his area of study concerns such questions as the formation of the solar system and its planets. “It was a non-existing field when I was a graduate student in 1954,” Wasserburg said.