Clean hands

Clair Cameron "Pat" Patterson (1922-1995) had a career in geochemistry which over 40 years witnessed a remarkable evolution from the dawn of nuclear chemistry to the cutting edge of mankind's place in the global environment. The measure of scientific success for Dr. Patterson was not so much his many individual accomplishments as it was in guiding the evolution of the field.

The field in this case is geochemistry, and the evolution is a matter of not just the intellectual gifts he contributed, but how he inspired his peers. The Patterson geochemical heritage is traced from his boyhood roots to the Chicago graduate days born out of the torments of the Manhattan project, to environmental concerns about trace element pollution of the globe, and finally to the functioning of the human mind.