Charles Palache

Charles Palache was an American mineralogist and crystallographer, born in 1869 and died in 1954, who became one of the most important mineralogists in the United States as a professor at Harvard University, where he directed the Mineralogical Museum and Laboratory. He conducted extensive fieldwork describing mineral occurrences in New England and the western United States and trained many mineralogists who went on to lead American museums and university departments. His most lasting contribution was co-producing the seventh edition of Dana System of Mineralogy, published in 1944, a comprehensive multi-volume reference that remained a foundational text of descriptive mineralogy for decades.