Elburt Franklin Osborn

Born Aug. 13, 1911, in Winnebago, Ill. American geologist.

Osborn graduated from DePauw University in Indiana. He was a teaching fellow in geology at Northwestern University from 1932 to 1934 and the California Institute of Technology from 1934 to 1937. Between 1938 and 1942 he worked as a petrologist at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. From 1946 to 1970 he was a professor at Pennsylvania State University, and in 1970 he was made director of the United States Bureau of Mines. His principal works deal with volcanology and with physicochemical, structural, and industrial petrography. Osborn belongs to the Geological Society of America and was a member of its board of Councillors from 1959 to 1962. He also belongs to the Mineralogical Society of America, of which he was president in 1960 and 1961, and several other American societies. He joined the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior in 1969.