A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine SciencePast Recipient, Dr. Robert Berner (1993) |
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Few
scientists can be said to have invented
or discovered an active field of
research. Dr. Robert Berner, the
sixteenth recipient of the A.G. Huntsman
Award, is one of these rare individuals.
His ideas on mathematical modelling of
kinetics has transformed sedimentary
geochemistry from an almost purely
descriptive science to one of prediction
and quantitative understanding. The focus
of scientific writing in this area of
science changed radically as a result of
the publication of Dr. Berner's papers
through the 1960s and 1970s. His two
monographs on this subject (Principles
of Chemical Sedimentology and
Early Diagenesis: A Theoretical Approach)
are the definitive texts on the subject,
and the first is considered by many as a
true classic of the geological
literature. In his writings on
sedimentary geochemistry he has argued
that sediments are not mere repositories
for chemicals, but are dynamic
"reactors" that return
transformed material to the oceans. (A
sobering thought today, when man simply
dumps massive amounts of human wastes and
industrial effluents into coastal oceans,
hoping that these will permanently settle
there). As an experimental physical
chemist he has established values of
fundamental constants, such as the
solubility of sulfide minerals, and he
has introduced the first use of the
now-ubiquitous pH-Stat in studying the
kinetics of dissolution and precipitation
of marine minerals. His
"G-kinetics" for composition of
organic matter are the most commonly used
and tested models in sedimentary
geochemistry. His efforts in
paleoceanography have provided a
quantitative way to distinguish between
oxic and euxinic environments based on
sulfur chemistry. More recently, Dr.
Berner has extended his thinking about
kinetic modelling to the coupling between
geochemical cycles in the ocean and on
land with the climate over geologic time.
In conjunction with A.C. Lasaga and the
late Bob Garrels, he illustrated how the
long-term CO2 content of the
atmosphere responds to oceanic processes,
such as the removal of calcium and
magnesium and the rate of sea-floor
spreading. This work has been the basis
for much of today's work on global
geochemical climate. 