Harry W. Green II

Distinguished Professor of the Earth Sciences, and Distinguished Professor of the Graduate Division, Harry Green died on September 22, 2017, at the age of 77. He is survived by his wife Manuela Martins-Green, also a professor at the University of California, Riverside, as well as his children and grandchildren.

Born on April 13, 1940, Harry grew up in Colorado but sought graduate study in geology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with a Ph.D. with distinction in 1968. Harry then conducted postdoctoral work at Case Western Reserve University prior to joining the faculty at the University of California, Davis as Professor of Geology in 1970. Over the next 22 years, Harry performed many functions in the department and the campus, including being Chair of his department (1984-88), prior to moving to UC Riverside in 1992.

During his years in the UC system, Harry’s groundbreaking research established a field of experimental rocks deformation at high pressures and high temperatures to bridge deep earth processes such as mineral phase transformations, fluid-solid matter interactions and earthquakes. He, together with colleagues and graduate students, advanced this work by using acoustic emissions to “hear” seismic events in laboratory experiments. Harry was known as an outstanding collaborator across disciplines and technologies throughout the world.  In 1995-2010 he extended his rock deformation knowledge to a new field of ultra-high pressure metamorphism related to deep subduction of crustal materials and continental plate geodynamics. He was a generous scientist, who through his academic career, never stopped surprising us by demonstrating how “small things” may trigger large challenges in our understanding of the Earth’s dynamics responsible for lithospheric plate movements, seismic activities and deep subduction zone processes. His research culminated in over 150 papers in high impact scientific journals including many of them published in Nature and Science.

Harry served the research community widely, including Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Consortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Sciences (COMPRES), President of the Tectonophysics Section and member of the Governing Council in the American Geophysical Union (AGU), co-founder of the Gordon Research Conference on Rock Deformation, and as an elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, the AGU and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Harry was awarded the Bowen Award from AGU in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology and the Roebling Medal (the highest award of the Mineralogical Society of America) for scientific eminence as represented primarily by publication of outstanding original research in mineralogy. Posthumously, the 2018 Louis Néel Medal was given to Harry by the European Geophysical Union for his outstanding achievements in geology and geophysics.

Harry served the University of California in many capacities. He was hired at UCR as Director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), chaired the Department of Earth Science, and became Vice Chancellor for Research, serving with distinction for 5 years. Harry served the Academic Senate by chairing the Committee on Undergraduate Education, sitting on the Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP) at Riverside, and chairing UCAP at the State-Wide Senate for two years. He also served multiple times on the committee that selects the Faculty Research Awardees.  His legacy was not only a commitment to shared governance but also in helping to change diversity review criteria (APM210-1.d) to become more inclusive and broaden participation and success of diverse colleagues and students. For his service, he received the Distinguished Campus Service Award. 

Harry was an inspiration educator who emphasized critical thinking. He received the Faculty Research Lecturer Award (2003), the highest award bestowed upon the faculty at UC. In addition to his graduate courses such as a graduate seminar in Ultrahigh Pressure Metamorphism and Stress and Deformation, he taught Mineralogy, Petrology, and Structural Geology for undergraduate students. In 2003 he inaugurated a Journal Club on Earthquake Physics that met once per week throughout the year and continues to this day. 

Harry is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren. He was a caring wonderful husband, father and grandfather. He will be remembered as well for his mentorship of numerous students, postdocs, and junior colleagues. We will all miss him immensely.

Prepared by Manuela Martins-Green, Larissa Dobrzhinetskaya, David D. Oglesby. Edited by Paul Nabity.