A new endowed professorship in the department honors the legacy of husband-and-wife Penn State researchers, one a distinguished professor emeritus in the department.
The Dr. Hubert Barnes and Dr. Mary Barnes Professorship in Geosciences was funded with a $1 million gift from the Barnes family.
“Penn State could not have been nicer to us throughout our careers,” Hubert Barnes said. “We both believed this endowment was a fitting way to give back and to support the work of the excellent faculty in the geosciences department. There’s a reason our department is ranked among the best in the world, and the evidence of that are the people.”
Hubert Barnes joined Penn State in 1960 and retired as a distinguished professor in 1997. In his retirement, he has continued his research and often works from his office in the Deike Building. He was named an honorary alumnus in 2016. Barnes received his bachelor of science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950 and his doctorate from Columbia University in 1958.
Mary Barnes, who died in 2017, was a research assistant at Penn State who studied radioactive waste disposal and cement chemistry. She received a bachelor of science from Swarthmore College in 1948 and a doctorate in chemistry from Penn State in 1966.
Barnes said he hopes the endowment helps the department continue its work teaching about natural resources and geochemistry.