Quick Facts
Biography
Ursula Bailey Marvin (born August 20, 1921) is an American planetary geologist and author who worked for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. She won the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Science and Engineering. In 1986, the Geological Society of America awarded her their History of Geology Award. She also won the 2005 Sue Tyler Friedman Medal, and Antarctica's Marvin Nunatak is named in her honor. In 2012, The Meteoritical Society awarded her the Service Award in part for her work recording the oral history of meteoriticists. Asteroid (4309) Marvin was named after Ursula Marvin.
Life and career
Marvin was born in Vermont. She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Tufts University in 1943. She then attended Harvard University-Radcliffe, earning a master's degree in geology in 1946. In 1952, she married geologist Thomas Crockett Marvin (June 28, 1916 – July 1, 2012). She was appointed to a permanent research staff position at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1961 and received a Ph.D. in Geology from Harvard in 1969.
She authored the 1973 book Continental Drift: Evolution of a Concept. Her key contributions in planetary science concentrated on studies of meteorites and lunar samples. Her publications include analysis of oxidation products of Sputnik 4 to determine mineralogical alteration over exposure time with applications to iron meteorites. She was also involved with numerous studies of returned samples from the Apollo 12, Apollo 15, Apollo 16 missions. Additionally she was involved in analysis of samples from Russian Lunar sample return missions Luna 16 and Luna 20.
She traveled to Antarctica for three of the early ANSMET surveys and analyzed of the first Lunar meteorite, Allan Hills A81005.
She served as a trustee at Tufts University from 1975 to 1985 and is an emerita trustee of the university.