RALPH W. G. WYCKOFF: HIS INFLUENCE ON MODERN MINERALOGY AND CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

An illustration of how many aspects of mineralogy and crystallography evolved during the past century is given in the career of Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff.  Wyckoff was born on 9 August 1897 in Geneva, NY, graduated from Hobart College at the age of 19, and obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1919 when he was 21.  His thesis involved the determination of the crystal structures of NaNO₃ and CsICl₂.  After graduation, Wyckoff joined the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, built an x-ray diffraction laboratory, and wrote a substantial number of crystallographic papers based on Laue and powder diffraction techniques.  He published his book The Analytical Expression of the Results of the Theory of Space Groups in 1922, which was the forerunner of International Tables for X-ray Crystallography, the first edition of which appeared in 1935.  In 1924, Wyckoff prepared another book, The Structure of Crystals, a compilation of X-ray structural work known at the time. For many years, he continued the description of all known crystal structures with the exception of non-stoichiometric intermetallic compounds, ending with last edition of Crystal Structures in 1971.  According to Hatten Yoder (Yoder, 2004), Wyckoff is alleged to have left the Geophysical Laboratory in 1927 for the Rockefeller Institute because the Geophysical Laboratory Director, Arthur Day, would not support Wyckoff's wish to focus on structures of organic crystals.  After spending several years at Rockefeller, Wyckoff worked at two industrial laboratories, the University of Michigan, and the National Institutes of Health before taking a faculty position at the University of Arizona and becoming a consultant to the Duval Corporation until his retirement in 1988 at the age of 91.  During this time his research interests changed toward electron diffraction and protein crystallography and he was elected President of the American Crystallographic Association and the International Union of Crystallography.  Wyckoff's intelligence, productivity, persistence in the face of adversity, and willingness to adapt to advances in science and technology are critical characteristics that are also required for success in the 21st Century.