Luna Leopold
Luna Leopold at an archeological site in the Jonah Gas Field near Pinedale, c. 2001. Leopold is in the middle wearing the plaid shirt and white Stetson, with the cane. Photo courtesy Pinedale BLM.
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Luna Leopold papers available online
Leader in watershed and geomorphology research
by Pinedale Online!
January 13, 2008
Luna Leopold, who passed away in February 2006 at the age of 90, was a renowned scientist who spent his career studying water and land use-related management issues in the United States. He, along with fellow researcher William Emmett, spent a lot of time in the Pinedale and Fremont Lake area doing watershed and run-off related research in the Wind River Mountains. They both had strong ties to the Pinedale area and maintained summer cabins in the Sylvan Bay summer home area adjacent to Fremont Lake for many years.
Leopold worked at the University of California, Berkeley from 1972 and retired in 1986, serving as the chair of the geology and geophysics department in his final year. He also taught at the Teton Science School in Jackson. Throughout his career, he conducted considerable research and wrote many scientific papers. Luna was the son of the famous conservationist, Aldo Leopold.
UC, Berkeley, has created a webpage with more information about Luna Leopold that includes a comprehensive list of his technical papers. As part of their “Virtual Luna Leopold Project” they have scanned many of his papers to PDF, a printable document format, and made them available so they can be read and downloaded online. Leopold assisted with this project, reviewed the publication list, and helped them find originals of papers.
Leopold’s papers span 68 years of his career as a scientist and researcher. He was trained as a civil engineer (B.S degree), meteorologist (M.S. degree) and geologist (Ph.D.). His first publication was in 1937 and his most recent was in 2005. His writings are a reflection of his blend of educational training and strong scientific interest in the relationship of land, water, climate, geomorphology and land-use management.
“Luna was a vital force, a man of extraordinary creativity and originality, whose passion about science and the natural world permeated all he did. He wrote with a clarity, simplicity, and insightfulness that inspired generations of researchers,” states the webpage in his memory.
Click on the link below to get to the UC Berkeley webpage about Luna Leopold, links to additional related websites, and the publication list of his writings.
Thank you to Kathy Raper for her contribution to this article.
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