Background
Curtis, Garniss Hearfield was born on May 27, 1919 in San Rafael, California, United States. Son of Chester Alphonse Kemp and Elizabeth Garniss (Hearfield) Curtis.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520038088/?tag=2022091-20
Curtis, Garniss Hearfield was born on May 27, 1919 in San Rafael, California, United States. Son of Chester Alphonse Kemp and Elizabeth Garniss (Hearfield) Curtis.
Bachelor of Science, University of California, Berkeley, 1942; Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, 1951.
In 1960, Curtis and fellow University of California Berkeley geophysicist Jack Evernden used potassium-argon dating methods developed by University of California Berkeley physicist John Reynolds on minerals found in tephra deposits collected by Evernden to date Mary Leakey"s 1959 Olduvai Gorge Bed I hominin Zinjanthropus (Paranthropus boisei) to 1.89 to 1.57 Mya. The great age of the fossil hominid and associated stone tools in the bed pushed back the then accepted age of the Pleistocene another million years, causing a stir in the geology community. The dating of these fossil finds is considered a starting point for the collaboration of paleoanthropology and geochronology.
Garniss Curtis died December 19, 2012, in Orinda, California.
Connecting the Links: Louis Leakey, Olduvai Gorge, and Garniss Curtis, at the National Center for Science Education blogsite.
Fellow California Academy of Sciences (Fellows Medal 1995), American Association for the Advancement of Science (Newcomb Cleveland award 1963, fellow, 1998). Member American Geophysical Union.
Married Dorette D. Davis, May 15, 1942 (deceased October 1987). Children: Penelope, Ann, Robin.
