Heinrich D. Holland
University of Pennsylvania
May 27, 1927 - May 21, 2012
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Scientific Discipline: Geology Membership Type:
Member
(elected 1979)
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Heinrich D. Holland was a leading light in geochemistry for almost six decades. His early work was in seawater geochemistry and economic geology, particularly the formation of hydrothermal ore deposits. But his studies of ore deposits also led him to consider the history of the atmosphere and the rise of atmospheric oxygen. It is in this latter area that he made his greatest mark. He wrote two books and dozens of papers and book chapters on this topic. Holland did more than anyone to solidify the notion that atmospheric O2 increased dramatically about halfway through Earth’s history—an event now termed the “Great Oxidation Event,” or GOE.
Holland earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Princeton University in 1946 and a PhD in geochemistry from Columbia University in 1954. While working toward his doctorate, he became an instructor in geology at Princeton in 1950, eventually teaching there for 22 years. He moved to the Harvard University faculty in 1972 and remained there till he retired from teaching, though not from research and publishing, in 2005.
