James J. Papike

Institute of Technology, May 21, 1999

Dr. Papike received his Ph.D. in geology from the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Minnesota in 1964. He is a leader in the field of mineralogy and geochemistry of planetary materials, especially Martian and lunar samples, and is the author of more than 200 publications in this area of research alone. A teacher, scholar, Regents' Professor and Director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Papike has throughout his career built and lead great organizations to even greater stature. He has served as a key advisor to NASA ever since the Apollo program and has been a powerful and influential force at NASA on the development of new and more successful strategies for sampling extraterrestrial materials. Papike is President of the Mineralogical Society, past President of the Geochemical Society and Fellow of a number of organizations for the advancement of science.