A '37 Shoots the Moon

The honor was well deserved, no doubt about it. But the fact that Anthony Turkevich '37 was given the; Boris Pregel Award of the New York; Academy of Sciences in January wasn't the only news about our frequently honored classmate—or his first award. Tony, the James Franck Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in Chemistry as the University of Chicago—and erstwhile consultant at Los Alamos—won an Atoms for Peace Award a few years ago. And, of course, Dartmouth gave him an honorary Sc.D. in 1971. Tony hasn't slowed down a bit. His citation for the $2,000 Academy of Sciences award states that is was for his "vigorous and imaginative scientific research across a wide range of the physical sciences, especially in the fields of nuclear physics, cosmology, astronomy, and geology, as well as chemistry."

But there's other news about Tony Turkevich that's a bit more, well, cosmic. The Soviet space probe that's due to drop a scientific pod on the Martian moon called Phobos on April 4 or 5 has a Turkevich instrument on board that will analyze the composition of the moon's surface. The four-inch cube, plus its miniaturized electronics package, is a direct descendant of the gold-plated Turkevich box that reached our moon's surface in Surveyor 5 in the mid-sixties. The latest version was built in West Germany—to the specifications of Tony and his senior research associate Thanasis Economou prior to the recent thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations.

Tony has his fingers crossed and cautions that there are tricky maneuvers ahead and many hazards in the way of complete success. According to Tony, Phobos is "only as big as Cook County, 18 or 20 miles across." And recently the Russians lost another Mars probe. But if all goes well you may know the stuff that Phobos is made of shortly after reading this.

Anybody want to bet on Green cheese?