Geoffrey Eglinton

Geoffrey Eglinton was a British chemist and biogeochemist born November 1, 1927, in Cardiff, Wales, who died March 11, 2016, and who was an emeritus professor and senior research fellow in earth sciences at the University of Bristol. A pioneer in organic geochemistry and molecular biomarker research, he developed coupled gas chromatography mass spectrometry techniques for organic geochemistry, advanced infrared spectroscopy methods for analyzing hydrogen bonding in organic compounds, and led the first organic analyses of Moon rocks returned by Apollo 11 in 1969; the Eglinton reaction is named in his honor. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976, received the Royal Medal and the Urey Medal, shared with John M. Hayes, in 1997, the V. M. Goldschmidt Award in 2000, the Wollaston Medal in 2004, the Dan David Prize in 2008, and a NASA Gold Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement.