[meteorite-list] A question for the scientists - Bunch, Rubin, others.

From: Ted Bunch <tbear1_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:39:39 -0700
Message-ID: <C83AD66B.1309E%tbear1_at_cableone.net>

Forgot to include the LIST on this reply to Mike - been a busy day with the
e-mail wars.

Hi Mike - I finished an MS in geology and took a job at Mellon Institute,
Pittsburgh. Alvin Cohen had a NASA grant and my friend Arch Reid (retired
space scientist) and I worked on impact craters and meteorites together.
Both of us got PhDs while working for Alvin. Mine was on impact shock
characteristics and I got into serious meteorite endeavors by taking a post
doc position with Klaus Keil at NASA Ames. After a couple of years, Klaus
left for other pastures and I inherited his labs. We continued to work
together for some time on Apollo, meteorites, igneous petrology, etc.

I retired from NASA in 2001 after 30 years (doing some additional weird
stuff like space osteoporosis research and serving as an Astrobiology
manager). I still work on impact cratering and meteorites, much to the
chagrin of some. Manage to churn out a paper here and there in both areas,
mostly through the efforts of my persevering colleagues.

Bottom line - I was at the right place at the right time. When I was at
Mellon, Meteor Crater was finally accepted as an impact crater (I really am
older than impact dirt). There were probably < 15 people in the world
working on craters then (mostly in Canada and Germany) and < 20 on
meteorites. But both fields really blossomed in the late '60s and '70s when
there were hundreds working in both areas, mostly due to Apollo research
and, of course, the massive funding the Program generated.

I could not get a job in meteorites today, too many bright people and
meteorite research money is disproportionate to the researchers in need.

I was fortunate and also lucky to be able to work on research that I
considered to be a hobby and, I got paid for it. Still a bobby, but now I
have to pay for it.

Ted


On 6/13/10 4:44 PM, "aerubin at ucla.edu" <aerubin at ucla.edu> wrote:

> I was always fascinated by Astronomy as a kid and never thought of
> doing anything else. I received my B.S. in Astronomy from the
> University of Illinois. When I decided to go to grad school I was
> working part-time at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and did not want
> to leave the city. I went for my M.S. at the University of Illinois,
> Chicago; because they didn't have an Astronomy program there, I went
> into Geology. I had previously taken only an introductory course in
> Geology as an undergraduate, but I liked it. I needed to write a
> Master's thesis and the only thing I could think of at the time that
> combined astronomy and geology was meteorites. So, I did a master's
> thesis on mesosiderites. I went for my Ph.D. at the University of New
> Mexico, partly on the advice of Ed Olsen (my Master's adviser and
> Curator of Meteorites at the Field Museum). He said that they
> actually looked at meteorites at UNM instead of just breaking them
> apart and analyzing them. That appealed to me. (I turned down an
> astronaut fellowship at Washington University to go to UNM.) I
> enjoyed the work I was doing in New Mexico and did a one-year post-doc
> at the Smithsonian before going to UCLA. Anyway, that's my story.
> Alan
>
>
> Quoting Galactic Stone & Ironworks <meteoritemike at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi Listees,
>>
>> I have a question for the scientists and meteoriticists on this List :
>>
>> At what point in your academic career did you decide to pursue
>> meteoritics? Did you set out from the beginning to study meteorites,
>> or did you move to meteoritics by some twist of fate or serendipity?
>>
>> I wish I had been "turned on" to meteorites earlier in my life, so I
>> could have decided to pursue it as a career, and not as a hobby. But
>> alas, this old dog is too old and poor to enter college again and
>> pursue the science. So I am curious what led our experts to the field
>> of meteorites.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> MikeG
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> Mike Gilmer - Galactic Stone & Ironworks Meteorites
>> http://www.galactic-stone.com
>> http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
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Received on Sun 13 Jun 2010 09:39:39 PM PDT