Madame Chancellor: I have the honour to present Dr. Samuel Epstein, B.Sc., Ph.D., Professor of , California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. Dr. Epstein was born in Poland in 1919 and came to Winnipeg with his family in 1927. He received his education in Winnipeg and graduated from The University of Manitoba with a Bachelor's Degree in 1941 and a Master's Degree in Science in 1942. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from McGill in 1944. From 1944-1947 Dr. Epstein was employed by the National Research Council, Canada, and in 1947 he went to the United States where he worked first at the and then moved, in 1952, to the California Institute of Technology, where he has remained to this day. Dr. Epstein is now a Citizen of the United States. His scientific career is marked from the beginning by a consistent association with important enterprises. Following his Ph.D., he worked at the National Research Council on projects directed toward supporting the war effort during the Second World War. These included, among other things, the development of RDX explosives. During subsequent years, he was at the centre of what was to become one of the really important developments in earth science - geochemistry. His connection with the new science began with its founders. He worked at McMaster University with its ex-president H. G. Thode, who was among the first to apply mass spectrometry to the study of isotope ratios in nature. He then went to the University of Chicago to work with Harold Urey and Enrico Fermi and was part of the research team which, under Urey, founded the science of isotope geochemistry. At the invitation of Harrison Brown, Dr. Epstein then moved to the California Institute of Technology to found his own laboratory of stable isotope geochemistry. A wide variety of applications for isotope measurements occupy Dr. Epstein's principal research interest. He has attacked problems of meteorology, hydrology, glaciology, petrology, biochemistry, plant physiology, climatology, and paleontology using isotope measurement techniques. He was, additionally, an original participant in the analysis of the lunar specimens returned by the Apollo astronauts. Dr. Epstein's publications include over 100 papers. Their titles serve as a catalogue of the development of stable isotope geochemistry and the diversity of applications evident in them shows how widely his discipline has been applied in earth science. The honours which have come to Dr. Epstein show how widely he is recognized as a major scientist. His distinguished service in science has been recognized by his membership in the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; he is President-elect of the Geochemical Society. The two medals he has received are considered major awards - The Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society, which he received in 1977, has been held by many scientists of stature. The Arthur L. Day Medal of the Geological Society of America, awarded in 1978 is one of the great scientific societies of the world. The strength and character of Dr. Epstein are perhaps best reflected in his acceptance speech for the V. M. Goldschmidt Medal: liMy loyalty to isotope geochemistry through these years stems mainly from the great diversity of interests that working in this field allows ... Isotope measurements have made contributions to glaciology, paleontology, to understanding the magnitude of rock water interaction ... Geobiology also benefitted from isotopic investigations ... of lunar samples as well as meteor- ites ... The cooperation of my colleagues ... allowed me, personally to contribute to some of these fields of investigation. However, most of the stable isotope research that has been done in my laboratory was carried out by young scientists who have spent some time either as graduate students or post-doctoral fellows. To this day one of the greatest satisfactions I derive from my career is the feeling that I might have contributed in some way to the careers of these young scientists ... The award ... I interpret as being mainly a recognition of the fundamental contribution that many people in the field of stable isotope geochemistry have made to the understanding of a wide spectrum of geological processes." Dr. Epstein and his wife Diane, reside in California. They have two sons, Rubin and Albert. Madame Chancellor, it is an honour and a privilege for me to ask, in the name of the Senate, that you confer upon Samuel Epstein the Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

D. R. Campbell President May 23,1980