W. G. Ernst

Wallace Gary Ernst ( born December 14, 1931 in St. Louis ( Missouri)) is an American geologist, specializing in petrology and geochemistry. He is the Benjamin M. Page Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Geology and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University.

Ernst put 1953 his B. A. in geology from the Carleton College, earned a degree in 1955 as MS geology at the University of Minnesota and in 1959 the Ph.D. in geochemistry at Johns Hopkins University.

Between 1960 and 1989 he was professor at the Faculty of Earth and Space Sciences and Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA). There he held the chair of the geological faculty, as well as the Faculty of Earth and Space Sciences and was Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. He was appointed professor of the Faculty of Geology and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University in 1989, where he was dean of the Department of Earth Sciences. In 2004 he retired, but remained active in the field of professional geology.

Serious research in the field of petrology, geochemistry and plate tectonic relationships in the field of circumpacific and alpine mountain belt and dealt with ultrahigh -pressure metamorphism in Eurasia. In addition, he investigated the geology of the California Coast Ranges, the central Klamath Mountains and the White- Inyo Range. Other areas of interest are geobotany investigations and remote sensing in the field of southwestern United States as well as the relationships between the mineralogy and human health.

Honors and Awards

Ernst is a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1975 and a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington since 1990. In 2004 he received the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America. Other honors are election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.