Background
Robert Arbuckle Berner was born on November 25, 1935 in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Paul Nau and Priscilla (Arbuckle) Berner.
Robert Arbuckle Berner was born on November 25, 1935 in Erie, Pennsylvania, United States. He was the son of Paul Nau and Priscilla (Arbuckle) Berner.
As a young man Berner decided to become a scientist because of his propensity for logical thinking.
Berner began his academic studies at the University of Michigan where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1957 and his Master of Science degree a year later. He then went to Harvard University and earned his Doctor of Philosophy in geology in 1962.
In 1962 Berner won a fellowship to do research at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, California. From 1963 until 1965, he worked as an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. Beginning in 1965, he taught at Yale University where he became the Alan M. Bateman Professor in 1987, a position he held until his retirement in 2007. Also, he worked as an associate editor in 1987 at American Journal of Science.
He has chaired the Geochemical Cycles Panel for the National Research Council and served on the National Committee on Geochemistry, the National Science Foundation Advisory Committees on Earth Sciences and Ocean Sciences, and the National Research Council Committee on Oceanic Carbon.
Berner's early research focused on the application of chemical thermodynamics and kinetics on sediments and sedimentary rocks. Results from these experiments led to his 1971 book Principles of Chemical Sedimentology. In 1980, Berner authored Early Diagenesis: A Theoretical Approach which was quoted so often that the Institute for Scientific Information declared it a Science Citation Classic.
Berner's later research focused on computer modeling of carbon and sulfur cycles, as well as the effects of atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen on the paleoclimate.
Berner died on January 10, 2015, following a long illness.
Berner served as president of the Geochemical Society in 1983, and he was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Geological Society of America, and the Mineral Society.
In 1959, Berner married fellow Geology graduate student Elizabeth Marshall Kay. They had three children.