Joseph Irwin Goldstein (January 6, 1939 – June 27, 2015) was an American
scientist and
engineer, working mainly in the fields of
materials science and
mechanical engineering.
He was a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and emeritus Dean of Engineering at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research into the nature of outer-space materials led to the naming of an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
after him in 2000,
4989 Joegoldstein.
His early research was at
MIT, where he received a B.S. in 1960, an S.M. in 1962 and an Sc.D. in 1964.
From 1964 to 1983, Goldstein was a professor of Materials Science and Engineering at
Lehigh University. During a sabbatical year in 1975, Goldstein discovered that
analytical electron microscopy could resolve the solute profiles in synthetic meteoritic materials. He used the technique of AEM to supplement his extensive Scanning Electron Microscopy techniques. He initiated the Lehigh University Summer Microscopy School in 1970 and these continue today, teaching both SEM and AEM microprobe techniques. Goldstein was the lead author, in collaboration with several fellow LUSMS faculty members, of four editions of ''Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-Ray Microanalysis''. The text is used worldwide in
electron microscopy seminars and graduate courses.
In 1983, Goldstein became Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research at Lehigh.
In 1990, Goldstein moved to UMass to become Dean of Engineering, a position he held until 2004.
In 1999 he received the
Henry Clifton Sorby Award of the
International Metallographic Society.
The asteroid 4989 Joegoldstein was named after Goldstein in 2000 by
Schelte J. Bus
Schelte John "Bobby" Bus (born 1956) is an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and deputy director of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at the Mauna Kea Observat ...
, who had discovered the asteroid in 1981 at the
Anglo-Australian Telescope
The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is a 3.9-metre equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, at an altitude of a little over 1,100 m. In 20 ...
. It was named in honor of Goldstein because of his outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics.
In 2005 he received the highest award of the Meteoritical Society, the Leonard Medal, for work on metal, phosphide, carbide, and sulphide in meteorites and lunar rocks; the formation of the Widmanstätten pattern and the determination of cooling rates in irons, stony-irons, and chondrites; the nature of
plessite and martensite formation; and determinations of phase diagrams for the Fe-Ni, Fe-Ni-P, Fe-Ni-Co, Fe-Ni-C, and Fe-Ni-S systems
[Rubin A. (2005) Meteoritics and Planetary Science 40 Supplement PP. A5-A6.]
References
External links
Joe Goldstein's faculty homepage
American engineers
Lehigh University faculty
University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty
1939 births
2015 deaths
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