After completing his Ph.D. at the University of California in Santa Barbara in 1972, Grant Heiken (heiken@whidbey.com) worked for NASA’s Apollo Program as a geology instructor and as a researcher on lunar surface processes. In 1975, he and his wife moved to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico, where he worked on geothermal exploration and development, volcanic hazard analysis, the uses of volcanic rocks, basic research on explosive volcanism, continental scientific drilling, and integrated urban science. He has co-written or edited 11 books. He retired in 2003 and moved to Freeland on Whidbey Island, Washington, with his wife Jody, who is a scientific editor. Grant volunteers for several service organizations, is on the board of the Whidbey-Camano Land Trust and is on the Island County water-resources advisory committee.

Grant’s March 2014 talk was based on his 2005 book “The Seven Hills of Rome—A Geological Tour of the Eternal City” (G. Heiken, R. Funiciello, R., and D. De Rita, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 288 p). (Updated 2021)

 

Terry C. Wallace Jr. was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and graduated from Los Alamos High School in 1974. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geophysics and mathematics from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, followed by a Master of Science and PhD in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology.

From 1983 to 2003, he was a professor at the University of Arizona. In 2006 Terry heard the call home and moved back to Los Alamos to become LANL’s Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering, then Principal Associate Director for Global Security. He served as the 11th Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory until his retirement in 2018.

In his off time, Terry is a marathon-style wilderness runner and avid hiker.  He is a mineral collector, a hobby fostered by his father from an early age. Terry has visited mining communities and mineral localities across the Americas, and has written extensively on various aspects of mineralogy for amateurs. He is the author of the popular mineral book Collecting Arizona. As you can suspect, Gold is one of his favorite minerals.

In Oct. 2020, Terry made an invaluable presentation on “Gold—A Journey from the Big Bang to the Amazon.”  (Updated Oct. 2021)

Tony Irving, UW professor and world expert on meteorites, holds one of his meteorite samples that has been dated at 4.6 billion years. He is an international expert in meteorites, having identified more than 1500 samples from Northwest Africa, Oman, China and the USA and published over 90 articles in international journals and books.  He received his B.Sc. and Ph.D degrees in Australia.  In April 2017, Tony lectured to the QGS on Meteorites—Ancient rocks from Space.  (Updated Oct. 2021)