Howard Flack Crystallographic Lecture Series 2025

November 10th to November 14th, 2025
Talks at Zurich, PSI, Bern, Lausanne, and Geneva

Talk 1: Mineral Evolution and the serach for critical resources, life's origins and tome's second arrow.

• ETH Zurick, Nov 10th, 16:00, D_EAPS colloquium, main building, HG ES
• Uni Bern, Nov 12th, 16:15, Studer Auditorium, Institute of geological sciences,
• Uni Geneva, Nov 14th, 12:15, Auditorium Stueckelberg, Ecole de Physique

Talk2: Data-Driven Discoveries in Mineralogy.

• Paul-Scherrer Inst., Nov 11th, 11:15, Auditorium West, WHGA/001
• Uni Lausanne, Nov 13th, 13:15, Geopolis

About the Speaker

Robert M. Hazen, Staff Scientist at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of Carnegie Science in Washington, DC, and Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences, Emeritus, at George Mason University, received degrees in geology from MIT and Harvard. Author of more than 500 articles and books on science, history, and music, Hazen has
been recipient of numerous awards, including the 2021 IMA Medal, the 2016 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America, and the 2012 Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. His book The Story of Earth (Viking-Penguin) was finalist in the Royal Society and Phi Beta Kappa science book competitions. The biomineral “hazenite,” as well as a fossil dolphin and a fossil hermit crab, were named in honor of Robert and Margaret Hazen. Since 2008, Hazen and his colleagues have explored “mineral evolution” and “mineral informatics”—new approaches that exploit large and growing mineral data resources to understand
the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. In October 2016 Hazen retired from a 40-year career as a professional trumpeter, during which he performed with numerous ensembles including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Ballet, and National Symphony.

Abstract

Robert M. Hazen—Lecture #1
Mineral evolution and the search for critical resources, life’s origins, and time’s second arrow Minerals, which display dramatic increases in diversity and complexity through more than 4.5 billion years of Earth’s evolution, provide a quintessential example of an abiotic evolving system. Quantitative studies of mineral evolution rely on large and robust mineralogical data resources, including crystal structures, compositions, and physical properties. These data, coupled with advanced analytical and visualization methods, enable us to search for new deposits of critical resources, to probe near- surface environments thought to have influenced the origins of Iife, and to suggest a framework that unifies behaviors of both biotic and abiotic evolving systems. We posit
that all such systems are characterized by combinatorial richness subject to selection—characteristics that hint at a second arrow of time.
Robert M. Hazen—Lecture #2
Data-Driven Discoveries in Mineralogy
The story of Earth is a 4.5-billion-year saga of dramatic transformations, driven by physical, chemical, and biological processes. The co-evolution of life and rocks unfolded in an irreversible sequence of evolutionary stages. Each stage re-sculpted our planet’s surface, while introducing new planetary processes and phenomena. This grand and intertwined tale of Earth’s living and non-living spheres is coming into ever sharper focus, thanks to advances in “mineral informatics”—a field that employs large and growing mineral data resources to tell the deep-time stories of our evolving planet. Minerals are remarkably information rich, holding dozens of trace and minor elements, scores of stable isotopes, solid and fluid inclusions, chemical zoning, twinning, exsolution, countless defects, and a host of optical, magnetic, electrical, and other
properties. Every mineral specimen is a time capsule waiting to be opened—waiting to tell its story. This lecture will explore some of the advanced data analytical and visualization methods that are shining new light on the old field of mineralogy.