Anita G. Harris | |
---|---|
Born | Anita Gloria Fishman July 10, 1937 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | July 12, 2014 (age 77) Florida, U.S. |
Other names | Anita G. Epstein |
Occupation(s) | Geologist, paleontologist, mapmaker |
Employer | United States Geological Survey |
Notable work | Conodont Alteration Index |
Anita Gloria Fishman Harris Epstein (July 10, 1937 – July 12, 2014) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and mapmaker. She devised the Conodont Alteration Index, a method of determining the heat exposure of buried rock, by analyzing conodont fossils. Her work, which had applications for the oil industry, was detailed in John McPhee's In Suspect Terrain (1983).
Anita Fishman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Harry Fishman (also known as Herschel Litwak or Harry Block) and Harriet Kirschberg Fishman. [1] Her father and her maternal grandparents were all born in Russia; her father owned a trucking company and her mother was a legal secretary. [2] She graduated from Brooklyn College, and earned a master's degree at Indiana University. [3] She completed doctoral studies at Ohio State University in 1969, with a dissertation titled "Stratigraphy of Uppermost Silurian and Lowermost Devonian Rocks and the Conodont Fauna of the Coeymans Formation and its Correlatives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Southeasternmost New York" (1970). [4]
Harris worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as a mapmaker and map editor, [5] and later as a research scientist. [6] She invented the Conodont Alteration Index, a means of determining heat exposure in buried rock, with applications in the oil industry. [7] [8] "Rocks are the record of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them," she explained to John McPhee, for his book In Suspect Terrain (1983). [1] [9] She was also featured on an episode of the children's science program, 3-2-1 Contact. She received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior, and was the first woman to win the Pander Society Medal. [10] During two sabbaticals from the USGS, she taught at Case Western Reserve University and Duke University as a visiting professor. She official retired from the USGS in 1999, but continued working on USGS projects, including four summers in Denver. [3]
Harris published dozens of scholarly papers and technical reports, in journals including Geological Survey Research, [11] SEPM Special Publications, [12] AAPG Bulletin, [13] [14] Geological Society of America Bulletin, [15] [16] Journal of South American Earth Sciences, [17] and Economic Geology. [18]
Anita Fishman married fellow geologist Jack Burton Epstein in 1958. They had a daughter, Laura, and divorced in 1976. [28] [29] Anita Epstein married her USGS colleague Leonard Dorreen Harris by 1978. He died in 1982. She had Alzheimer's disease in her last years, and died in 2014, at the age of 77. [3] She was posthumously recognized with the 2015 Harrison Schmitt Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. [10] [30]
Anita G. Harris | |
---|---|
Born | Anita Gloria Fishman July 10, 1937 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Died | July 12, 2014 (age 77) Florida, U.S. |
Other names | Anita G. Epstein |
Occupation(s) | Geologist, paleontologist, mapmaker |
Employer | United States Geological Survey |
Notable work | Conodont Alteration Index |
Anita Gloria Fishman Harris Epstein (July 10, 1937 – July 12, 2014) was an American geologist, paleontologist, and mapmaker. She devised the Conodont Alteration Index, a method of determining the heat exposure of buried rock, by analyzing conodont fossils. Her work, which had applications for the oil industry, was detailed in John McPhee's In Suspect Terrain (1983).
Anita Fishman was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Harry Fishman (also known as Herschel Litwak or Harry Block) and Harriet Kirschberg Fishman. [1] Her father and her maternal grandparents were all born in Russia; her father owned a trucking company and her mother was a legal secretary. [2] She graduated from Brooklyn College, and earned a master's degree at Indiana University. [3] She completed doctoral studies at Ohio State University in 1969, with a dissertation titled "Stratigraphy of Uppermost Silurian and Lowermost Devonian Rocks and the Conodont Fauna of the Coeymans Formation and its Correlatives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Southeasternmost New York" (1970). [4]
Harris worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as a mapmaker and map editor, [5] and later as a research scientist. [6] She invented the Conodont Alteration Index, a means of determining heat exposure in buried rock, with applications in the oil industry. [7] [8] "Rocks are the record of events that took place at the time they formed. They are books. They have a different vocabulary, a different alphabet, but you learn how to read them," she explained to John McPhee, for his book In Suspect Terrain (1983). [1] [9] She was also featured on an episode of the children's science program, 3-2-1 Contact. She received a Meritorious Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior, and was the first woman to win the Pander Society Medal. [10] During two sabbaticals from the USGS, she taught at Case Western Reserve University and Duke University as a visiting professor. She official retired from the USGS in 1999, but continued working on USGS projects, including four summers in Denver. [3]
Harris published dozens of scholarly papers and technical reports, in journals including Geological Survey Research, [11] SEPM Special Publications, [12] AAPG Bulletin, [13] [14] Geological Society of America Bulletin, [15] [16] Journal of South American Earth Sciences, [17] and Economic Geology. [18]
Anita Fishman married fellow geologist Jack Burton Epstein in 1958. They had a daughter, Laura, and divorced in 1976. [28] [29] Anita Epstein married her USGS colleague Leonard Dorreen Harris by 1978. He died in 1982. She had Alzheimer's disease in her last years, and died in 2014, at the age of 77. [3] She was posthumously recognized with the 2015 Harrison Schmitt Award by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. [10] [30]