Lowenstam, Heinz A. (Heinz Adolf), 1912-1993

Lowenstam (1912-1993). Professor of palaeoecology, California Institute of Technology; responsible for discovery of phenomenon of biomagnetism.

Biographical Sketch

Heinz A. Lowenstam was born on October 9, 1912, in Upper Silesia, Germany. He was educated at the University of Frankfurt and began his graduate work in geology and paleontology at the University of Munich just at the time of Hitler's rise to power.

In 1935, he declared his intention of conducting his Ph.D. field research in Palestine, to the dismay of his pro-Nazi department chairman. After spending 18 months studying the geology of the Eastern Nazareth Mountains, he returned to Germany to learn that a new law prohibited the awarding of doctorates to Jews.

In 1937, Lowenstam emigrated to the U.S., where he was accepted at the University of Chicago. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1939, he went to work as a paleontologist for the Illinois State Museum. During World War II, he did oil and coal research for the military. Subsequently, he joined the geochemistry faculty of the University of Chicago, where he worked with Harold Urey on the temperature of ancient oceans (paleothermometry).

Lowenstam joined the geology faculty at Caltech in 1952 with the title professor of paleoecology. During his years at Caltech, Lowenstam traveled widely and conducted research in a variety of fields, including the geology of the Midwestern U.S.A. and the geology of the Middle East, invertebrate paleontology and prehistoric ecology. He became celebrated for his discoveries in biomineralization--that living organisms manufacture substances such as the iron-containing mineral magnetite within their bodies. Lowenstam first encountered this phenomenon in the chiton, a sea creature that had "iron teeth." He is also renowned for his pioneering research on coral reefs and their influence on biologic processes in the geologic record.

--Charlotte E. Erwin --June 1994 --rev. March 1995