Michael Fleischer

Michael Fleischer was an American mineralogist, born in 1908 and died in 1998, who spent his career with the United States Geological Survey from 1939 to 1978 shaping how new minerals are named and classified. He managed the New Mineral Names column of the journal American Mineralogist for more than forty years, reviewing and standardizing descriptions of newly discovered minerals, and became the first chairman of the International Mineralogical Association commission that brought formal order to mineral nomenclature. His reference work Glossary of Mineral Species, first published in 1971 and repeatedly revised, became the standard checklist of recognized mineral names used by mineralogists worldwide.