Julian Royce Goldsmith (1918–1999) was a mineralogist and

geochemist Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the ...

at the University of Chicago (Moore, 1971). Goldsmith, along with colleague Fritz Laves, first defined the crystallographic polymorphism of

alkali feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldspa ...

(Newton, 1989). Goldsmith also experimented on the temperature dependence of the solid solution between

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

and

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

(Newton, 1989). Goldsmith’s research also led him to experiment with the determination of the stability of intermediate structural states of albite (Newton, 1989). For his outstanding contributions to the study of mineralogy and geochemistry, Goldsmith was awarded the prestigious Roebling Medal by the Mineralogical Society of America in 1988 (Newton, 1989). The mineral

julgoldite Julgoldite is a member of the pumpellyite mineral series, a series of minerals characterized by the chemical bonding of silica tetrahedra with alkali and transition metal cations. Julgoldites, along with more common minerals like epidote and vesuv ...

was named for him.

References

* Moore, P.B. (1971) Julgoldite, the Fe +2-Fe+3 dominant pumpellyite. A new mineral from Långban, Sweden. ''

Lithos Lithos is a glyphic sans-serif typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe Systems. Lithos is inspired by the unadorned, geometric letterforms of the engravings found on Ancient Greek public buildings. The typeface consists of only cap ...

'' 4, 93-99. * Newton, R. (1989) Presentation of the Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America for 1988 to Julian R. Goldsmith. ''American Mineralogist'', 74, 715-716.
Edward J. Olsen, ''Memorial for Julian Royce Goldsmith, 1918–1999,'' American Mineralogist, Volume 85, pages 382–383, 2000
1918 births 1999 deaths American geochemists American mineralogists University of Chicago faculty Presidents of the Geochemical Society {{geologist-stub