Leon Silver

Leon Silver

Silver in 1972 during the Apollo 17 landing
Born Leon Theodore Silver
(1925-04-09) April 9, 1925
Monticello, New York
Residence Pasadena, California
Nationality American
Other names Lee Silver
Citizenship American
Education Ph.D., Geology & Geochemistry (1955)
Alma mater California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Occupation Geology professor, Emeritus
Employer Caltech (emeritus)
Known for Training of Apollo astronauts in field geology

Leon Theodore "Lee" Silver, Ph. D (born April 9, 1925), Professor of Geology at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), was an instructor to the Apollo 13, 15, 16, and 17 astronaut crews. Working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), he taught astronauts how to perform field geology, essentially creating lunar field geology as a new discipline. His training is credited with a significant improvement in the J-Mission Apollo flights' scientific returns. After the Apollo program, he became a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1974. Currently, he is the W. M. Keck Foundation Professor for Resource Geology, emeritus, at Caltech.

Early life and education

Leon Silver was born in Monticello, New York on April 9, 1925 as the youngest of five children.[1] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland, who moved the family to Waterbury, Connecticut soon after he was born. He graduated from Crosby High School in 1942.[1]

After spending a year at the Colorado School of Mines before being called up by the Navy in 1943 as a member of the Navy V-12 Program, Silver earned his BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1945. He later earned an MS in Geology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque in 1948; and a Ph.D. in Geology and Geochemistry at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, in 1955.[2]

Career

Early career

Silver served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Civil Engineer Corps. He worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Mineral Deposits Branch, in Colorado and Arizona from 1947 to 1954 (field seasons only), where he attained the status of Assistant Geologist.

Academic career

After completing his Ph.D., Silver was appointed Assistant Professor of Geology (1955–1962) at Caltech; he was later promoted to Associate Professor (1962–1965), Professor (1965–1983), and W. M. Keck Foundation Professor for Resource Geology (1983–1996). Since his retirement, he has been Keck Professor Emeritus.[3]

His main research interests are petrology, tectonics, and applications of geology and isotope geochemistry to geochronology, crustal evolution, ore deposits, and comparative planetology.[3] While pursuing these research interests, Silver also played a major role in the Apollo Program's lunar geological exploration as well as on numerous national scientific advisory boards and committees.[4]

NASA and Apollo Program involvement

NASA's Johnson Space Center Oral History Project lists Silver's involvement as follows:[5]

Other federal government advisory roles

Silver's work with the Apollo Program has been recounted in Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon (1994).[9] The book became a TV mini-series in 1998, with David Clennon portraying him in the HBO docu-drama series From The Earth To The Moon.[4] In the series' Episode 10 "Galileo Was Right", Silver is shown teaching the Apollo 15 astronauts field geology, and participating from Houston's Mission Control in their lunar extra-vehicular activities (Moonwalks).[4] Silver was interviewed about the episode and he felt that it "romanticized" the experience, and had minor historical inaccuracies, but otherwise liked it and showed it at a lecture in 1999.[4]

In 2002, Apollo 15 Commander David Scott devoted a section of his co-authored book Two Sides of the Moon to the training and instruction that Scott and other Apollo astronauts received from Silver.[10]

Personal

Leon Silver is a board member of the Caswell Silver Foundation at the University of New Mexico. The Foundation was created in 1980 through an endowment by Caswell Silver, an alumnus of the Department of Geology, independent oilman, and Leon Silver's brother.[11] The Foundation supports education and research at the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico.[12][13]

His grandnephew is statistician and journalist Nate Silver.

Honors and awards

Selected publications

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 Cohen, pp. ii-iii
  2. ↑ Ph.D. thesis: Leon Theodore Silver, The structure and petrology of the Johnny Lyon Hills area, Cochise County, Arizona: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 1955.
  3. 1 2 "Leon T. Silver". Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Pasadena: California Institute of Technology. 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Drexler (1999)
  5. ↑ Butler (2002)
  6. ↑ Membership of Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee
  7. ↑ See America at the threshold: report of the Synthesis Group on America's space exploration initiative, Thomas P Stafford, Washington, D.C.: Supt. of Docs., U.S.G.P.O. [1991]. ISBN 978-0160317651.
  8. ↑ "Final Report to the President: Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station," June 10, 1993.
  9. ↑ Chaikin (1994)
  10. ↑ Scott & Leonov (2002)
  11. ↑ Ashburn, Nolan (December 1998). "Memorial to Caswell Silver 1916–1988" (PDF). Memorials, v. 29, December 1998. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. 29. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  12. ↑ Ashcraft, Ellen K. (2002). "Caswell Silver Foundation is Sterling". Developments. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico (Spring 2002). Archived from the original on 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2011-09-09.
  13. ↑ [Caswell Silver Foundation website http://epswww.unm.edu/financial-aid/caswell-silver-foundation/].
  14. ↑ "Leon Silver Receives NASA Medal". The California Tech. Pasadena: California Institute of Technology. LXXIII (10). 1971-12-02.
  15. ↑ List of Fellows of MSA
  16. ↑ "GSA Past Presidents". About GSA. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
Bibliography
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