Albrecht Hofmann

Albrecht Werner Hofmann
Hofmann in 2018
Born
ann

1939 (age 84–85)
Germany
Alma materBrown University (PhD)
AwardsUrey Medal (2015)[1]
Scientific career
InstitutionsCarnegie Institution for Science
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Columbia University
ThesisHydrothermal experiments on equilibrium partitioning and diffusion kinetics of Rb, Sr, and Na in biotite - alkali chloride solution systems (1969)
Doctoral advisorBruno Giletti
Websitewww.mpic.de/en/research/biogeochemistry/biogeo/mitglieder/albrecht-hofmann/profile.html

Albrecht Werner Hofmann (born 1939) is a German geochemist who is emeritus professor at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. He is best known for his contributions to the field of geochemistry.[2][3]

Education

Hofmann studied geology and geochemistry in Freiburg in Germany, and completed his PhD degree at Brown University from 1962 - 1968. His thesis on hydrothermal experiments on partitioning and diffusion of alkali metals in biotite-alkali chloride solutions was awarded in 1969.[4]

Career and research

After working at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. as a post-doctoral fellow (1971–1972) and then staff scientist (1972–1980), Al was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany, in 1980, to lead the new Department of Geochemistry. He has been emeritus in Mainz and visiting senior research scientist at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University since 2007.

Hofmann uses trace elements and isotopic compositions of basalts to study the composition and evolution of Earth's mantle.[5] He recognized "canonical" trace element ratios as tools to distinguish recycling processes of ancient oceanic and continental crust through the mantle and showed that the chemical heterogeneity of the mantle is dominated by recycled ocean crust.

Awards and honours

Among the awards he received are the Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society, the Hess Medal of the American Geophysical Union, and the Urey Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry.[5][1] He has been a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States since 1999.[6] He was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2018.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b "About Albrecht W. Hofmann « European Association of Geochemistry". www.eag.eu.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  2. ^ Albrecht Hofmann publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  3. ^ "Albrecht HOFMANN | Professor Emeritus | Ph.D. | Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz | mpic | Department of Climate Geochemistry | Research profile". Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  4. ^ Brown University historical database of print Theses and Dissertations
  5. ^ a b c Anon (2018). "Professor Albrecht Hofmann ForMemRS". London: Royal Society. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:

    "All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." --"Terms, conditions and policies | Royal Society". Archived from the original on 11 November 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "Albrecht Hofmann". www.nasonline.org.

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.