About the H.C. Urey Award
The H.C. Urey Award is bestowed annually by the EAG for outstanding contributions advancing geochemistry over a career. It is named in honor of Harold Clayton Urey, an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 and later led him to theories of planetary evolution.
The award is based on scientific excellence as well as the broader impacts candidates have made in their careers to date. Such contributions to the broader geochemical community may include but are not limited to mentorship of young scientists, outreach, encouragement of diversity and inclusion in science or exceptional editorial contributions.
We are committed to promoting the diversity of our awardees, to recognizing a wide range of different types of exceptional contribution, and we acknowledge the different career paths that lead to the achievement of such contributions.
Nominations of underrepresented groups are encouraged.
The award is presented at the V.M. Goldschmidt Conference and consists of an engraved medal, an honorarium (1000 Euros), a certificate and inclusion as a Geochemistry Fellow.
Recipient of the 2021 Urey Award: Sachiko Amari
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Sachiko Amari has made groundbreaking and fundamental contributions to cosmochemistry, especially to the study of carbonaceous presolar grains and noble gases in meteorites. Her work has provided key new insights into the stellar nuclear processes responsible for the synthesis of the chemical elements and into the still mysterious nature of the primary carrier of noble gases in the earliest building blocks of planets. Read more
The 2021 Urey Award Lecture was presented at the Goldschmidt2021 Conference.
View the video citation by Larry Nittler and the video acceptance by Sachiko Amari.
Former recipients of the Urey Award
- 2020 Jill Banfield, University of California, Berkeley, USA – Citation by Ken Nealson and Response by Jill Banfield
- 2019 Eric Oelkers, GET Laboratory, CNRS, France and University College London, UK – Citation by Liane G. Benning
- 2018 Susan L. Brantley, Pennsylvania State University, USA
- 2017 Eiji Ohtani, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
- 2016 Klaus Mezger, University of Bern, Switzerland
- 2015 Albrecht W. Hofmann, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany
- 2014 Edward Boyle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
- 2013 Igor Tolstikhin, Russian Academy of Sciences
- 2012 Alexander Halliday, University of Oxford, UK
- 2011 Donald E. Canfield, University of South Denmark, Denmark
- 2010 Charles Langmuir, Harvard University, USA
- 2009 François Morel, Princeton, USA
- 2008 Pascal Richet, IPGP, France
- 2007 Harry Elderfield, Cambridge University, UK
- 2006 Herbert Palme, Senckenberg Research Institute, Germany
- 2005 Alexandra Navrotsky, University of California, Davis, USA
- 2004 Harold C. Helgeson, University of Berkeley, USA
- 2003 Nicholas Shackleton, University of Cambridge, UK
- 2002 Grenville Turner, University of Manchester, UK
- 2001 Keith O’Nions, Imperial College London, UK
- 2000 Donald DePaolo, University of Berkeley, USA
- 1999 John Edmond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
- 1998 Jean-Guy Schilling, University of Rhode Island, USA
- 1997 Geoffrey Eglinton, University of Bristol, UK and John Hayes, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA
- 1995 Samuel Epstein, California Institute of Technology, USA, Robert N. Clayton, University of Chicago, USA and Hugh P. Taylor, Jr., California Institute of Technology, USA
- 1990 Wallace S. Broecker, Columbia University, USA and Hans Oeschger, University of Bern, Switzerland
Susan L. Brantley, Pennsylvania State University
Eiji Ohtani, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Klaus Mezger, University of Bern, Switzerland
Albrecht W. Hofmann, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany
Edward Boyle, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Igor Tolstikhin, Russian Academy of Sciences