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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Celebrating CMS Founding Director Carleton B. Moore

Friends and colleagues of the late Center Founding Director and ASU Regents’ Professor Carleton B. Moore gathered recently in the School of Earth and Space Exploration to pay tribute to his storied career and share memories. Speakers included BCMS Director Rhonda Stroud, School of Earth and Space Exploration Director (and former Director of the Center for Meteorite Studies) Meenakshi Wadhwa, Center Curator Laurence Garvie, and ASU Regents Professor Peter Buseck.

BCMS Director Rhonda Stroud.

Professor Carleton B. Moore was the Founding Director of ASU’s Center for Meteorite Studies, Professor in the ASU School of Earth & Space Exploration, and Regents Professor in the ASU School of Molecular Sciences). He was editor of the journal Meteoritics for 20 years. He was a member of the Lunar Sample Preliminary Examination Team for NASA’s Apollo program and a principal investigator for the returned lunar sample program for all the Apollo missions.

Center Curator Laurence Garvie.

Moore’s research efforts focused on the geochemistry of meteorites, lunar samples and analytical geochemical problems taking advantage of the great sample depth present in the Center’s collections, including statistical studies of meteorite compositions and homogeneity, the origin of the low calcium achondrites, trace elements in iron meteorites, as well as high- and low-temperature phases, including organic compounds, in carbonaceous chondrites. In 2011, on the occasion of the Center for Meteorite Studies’ 50th anniversary, the ASU meteorite collection was officially renamed the Carleton B. Moore Meteorite Collection. Read more about Moore’s ground-breaking historical research over 42 years in the ASU Center for Meteorite Studies, here.

Following the scheduled speakers, SESE faculty and staff were invited to share stories of meeting and working with Professor Moore, and all emphasized not only his impressive scientific contributions, but also his generosity of spirit and perpetual good humor.

SESE Director and former CMS Director Meenakshi Wadhwa.