author
Lincoln LaPaz
1897–1985
A mathematician turned astronomer, he helped make meteorites a serious field of study in the United States. At the University of New Mexico, he founded what became one of the world’s best-known centers for meteoritics and was also drawn into unusual wartime and postwar investigations.
1 Audiobook
Space Nomads: Meteorites in Sky, Field, and Laboratory
by Lincoln LaPaz, Jean LaPaz
About the author
Born in Wichita, Kansas, in 1897, Lincoln LaPaz studied mathematics at Fairmount College, earned a master’s degree at Harvard, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He taught at Dartmouth and Ohio State before his career shifted toward astronomy and meteorites.
During World War II, his work in operations analysis and ballistics helped spark a lasting interest in meteorites. After moving to the University of New Mexico in 1945, he founded the Institute of Meteoritics, a pioneering research center devoted to meteorites, and led major parts of UNM’s mathematics and astronomy programs for many years.
LaPaz is remembered as one of the early figures who brought rigor and organization to meteoritics. He also became known for investigating puzzling fireball sightings in the Southwest, but his lasting legacy is the way he helped build meteorite research into a serious academic discipline.