Dr. Roderick Ewing, a member of the GIA Board of Governors from 2006 to 2015, died earlier this month at age 77.
Susan Jacques, GIA President and CEO, stated, “Rod Ewing exemplified the high caliber and deep competence in science, research, and academics of the many scientists who serve on the Institute’s Board of Governors, assisting in the strategic direction of the Institute. He was a strong supporter of the Institute’s gemological research and helped develop the Richard T. Liddicoat Postdoctoral Fellowship program, which expanded the GIA‘s research capacities.”
Dr. Ewing‘s contributions to science over the past 50 years have earned him several accolades and acclaim. He was a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, a foreign fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a recipient of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Lomonosov Gold Medal. In 2017, the most complicated mineral known at the time was named in his honor: ewingite.
Dr. Ewing intended to retire later this year from his post as a professor in Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences’ Department of Geological and Environmental Science. He served on 13 National Research Council committees, two years on the Board of Nuclear and Radiation Studies, and chaired the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board during President Barack Obama’s administration. In 2015, Dr. Ewing received the International Mineralogical Association’s Medal of Excellence in Mineralogical Sciences and the American Geosciences Institute’s Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell for Superlative Service in Geosciences.