Karl Turekian

Karl Karekin Turekian was an American geochemist, born in 1927 and died in 2013, who served as Sterling Professor at Yale University. His research ranged with unusual breadth across the sediments of the deep seas, the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, meteorite strikes and the chemical composition of Moon rocks, applying trace element and isotope geochemistry to problems spanning planetary science and environmental chemistry. He helped establish geochemistry as a broad interdisciplinary field bridging detailed chemical analysis with questions about the history and composition of Earth and the wider solar system, and he trained generations of geochemists during his decades at Yale.