The Knoxville News-Sentinel Saturday, September 8, 2001
Story reprinted with permission.
UT prof credits extraordinary
career to luck
By
David Keim
News-Sentinel staff writer
Dr. Hap McSween
will pick up an international science award in Rome, Italy,
on Thursday to honor a career's work that began with a rather
outlandish theory some 24 years ago.
He and another
graduate student at Harvard University suggested in 1977 that
two meteorites -- one from Africa, one from India -- came from
Mars.
"It was just
a stab in the dark, and it was kind of a risky thing to do in
that early stage of our careers," the geologist said recently,
sitting in his office at the University of Tennessee. "But we
were graduate students. We didn't know any better. ... We couldn't
find another explanation."
The lava stones
were a relatively young 175 million years old, while other meteorites
are 4.5 billion years old, he said, and the young men could
come up with no better explanation than that the stones erupted
from another planet.
"We basically
got laughed out of the room," McSween recalled. "Figuratively
speaking."
A few years later,
a NASA scientist found that gases trapped in a meteorite looked
like gas found on Mars.
Theories arose
about how a large enough impact on Mars' surface could launch
debris away from the planet at escape velocity while not vaporizing
it.
McSween's idea
gained acceptance, and his skills as a geologist who specialized
in extraterrestrial samples brought him work on NASA Mars missions.
"The people who
understand the kind of data we have now are geologists, not
astronomers," he said. "I'm in a geology department, but I am
basically a planetary scientist."
McSween, a member
of the science teams for NASA's Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global
Surveyor missions, is also working with the Mars Odyssey Orbiter.
He plans to work with the Mars Exploration Rovers to be launched
in 2003.
"This is our
generation's frontier," said McSween, who turns 56 this month.
He doesn't believe Americans want to limit science to exploring
this world. "They want the thrill of discovery, too."
He will receive
the Frederick C. Leonard Memorial Medal in Rome from the Meteoritical
Society, an international organization of scientists whose studies
include planets, asteroids and comets.
"I didn't really
expect to win this medal," McSween said. "The truth is this
is a medal that has gone to a lot of people at Harvard and Oxford,
and the University of Tennessee is a little bit of a backwater
compared to those places."
McSween, however,
is proud of UT, the only Southeastern school with a planetary
science graduate program and his home since he graduated from
Harvard.
He grew up in
Clinton, S.C., where he thrilled at packages full of labeled
stones sent every few months by an uncle who was a rock collector.
"It was just like Christmas," he said.
He studied chemistry
at his home state's military college, The Citadel, then earned
a master's degree in geology at the University of Georgia. He
then flew in the Air Force for five years before enrolling at
Harvard.
His flying time
unexpectedly helped his geology career, familiarizing him with
aircraft systems before he went to NASA.
A classmate at
The Citadel -- best-selling novelist Pat Conroy -- came in handy
when McSween began authoring science books aimed at explaining
planetary science to a general audience. Conroy put McSween
in touch with his agent, and McSween's last two books were published
by St. Martin's Press.
"You know, my
whole life is luck," McSween suggested. "It was just being at
the right place at the right time."
The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Thursday, September 20, 2001
Story reprinted with permission.
UT geologist happily returns to U.S.
By David Keim
News-Sentinel staff writer
Dr. Hap McSween
and his wife, Sue, saw the smoking ruins of the World Trade
Center on their return flight from Italy early this week, but
they were glad to be back on American soil.
"When we
touched down, the plane just erupted in applause, because everybody
wanted to be home," said McSween, a University of Tennessee
geologist. "This may not be the safest place on Earth any
more, but we want to be here."
The McSweens flew
to Italy before last weeks attack so he could pick up an international
science award. As news of Tuesdays events spread, the Italians
treated Americans with great sympathy and support.
"Waiters
would just come up to you and say, Im so sorry, " McSween
said.
The mayor of Rome
sent American tourists a letter offering a special telephone
number to help them call the United States.
The pope made
eloquent remarks to a gathering of thousands in St. Peters
Basilica, although the normally boisterous crowd was silent.
The McSweens learned
of the attacks from other Americans at an outdoor café.
They couldnt leave the country, and they kept their itinerary,
although the news dampened McSweens enthusiasm when he received
the Frederick C. Leonard Memorial Medal last Thursday.
The award came
from the Meteoritical Society, an international organization
of scientists whose studies include planets, asteroids and comets.
It recognized McSweens contributions to the study of Mars.
The McSweens left
Rome on Friday, visited Venice, then flew out of Milan on Monday.
A guard with a submachine gun was on the parapet over the Delta
desk at the airport in Italy.
"I didnt
mind seeing him," McSween said.
Back home, the
airports were empty, and his electronic mailbox was full of
kind wishes from scientific organizations.
"Its just
kind of amazing the interest and support I think America is
getting out of this," he said.
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