Geochemist John Eiler, Robert P. Sharp Professor of Geology and Geochemistry, has been named the new chair of the Department of Geology and Planetary Sciences at Caltech. He will begin a five-year term on Sept. 1, taking over the Ted and Ginger Jenkins Leadership Chair from current department head John Grotzinger, Harold Brown Professor of Geology.
“I am delighted that John Eiler has agreed to chair the department,” says Caltech Provost David Tirrell, the Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair and Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. “John is an outstanding geochemist who has played a major role in defining the major intellectual directions in the geosciences at Caltech and around the world. He is a wonderful successor to John Grotzinger, who has led the department with distinction for the past decade. The Seismological Laboratory, the Center for Comparative Planetary Evolution, the Brinson Exploration Hub, and many other important initiatives at Caltech and JPL clearly bear the mark of John’s leadership.”
Eiler’s research has focused for decades on applying stable isotope geochemistry to answer fundamental questions about Earth and in environmental and planetary science. His groundbreaking instruments and techniques have been used to learn how dinosaurs regulated their body heat, how organic molecules formed in space, and more.
Eiler earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1989, where he studied geology. He received his PhD in geology from the University of Wisconsin in 1994 and worked for four years as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at Caltech before taking up his faculty position in 1998. He has been awarded the Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America, the Samuel Epstein Medal of the European Association of Geochemistry, and the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union. Eiler was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.
“The 30 years I spent in the Caltech community have shaped me as a scientist and as a person,” Eiler says. “I feel a real obligation to give back to the institute and my colleagues, and I am honored to be given this opportunity as department head.”
