Robert Phillip Sharp (24 June 1911 – 25
May 2004) was an American geomorphologist
and expert on the geological surfaces of the
Earth and the planet Mars. Sharp served as
the chairman of the Division of Geological
Sciences at California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) from 1952 to 1968. He built the
modern department and especially recruited
new faculty in geochemistry, tectonic geomorphology,
planetary science, and field geology.
== Biography ==
Professor Sharp specialized in geomorphology
and published heavily in glacial terrain (the
Sierra Nevada, Blue Glacier in the Olympic
Peninsula, and Alaska), Mojave Desert terrain,
and the Ruby-East Humboldt Range in north-central
Nevada. Sharp retired in 1979 but continued
leading geological field trips afterwards
(with emphasis on the Grand Canyon geology
using rubber rafts).
Robert Sharp was a member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences and received
the National Medal of Science from President
George H. W. Bush in 1989. Professor Sharp
won the Penrose Medal from the Geological
Society of America, its highest honor. Sharp
was honored by Caltech as the first named
professorship in geology: the Robert Phillip
Sharp Chair in Geology.
Sharp was a native son of Oxnard, California.
He attended Caltech as an undergraduate, beginning
in 1930, earning a bachelor's degree (1934)
in geology, and master's degree (1935) in
geology. While at Caltech, he was quarterback
on the football team.
He matriculated to Harvard University for
a doctorate (1938) in geology under Professor
Kirk Bryan. Sharp served in the United States
Army during World War II as an analyst in
the Arctic, Desert and Tropical Information
Center and achieved the rank of captain. During
World War II, Sharp performed extensive field
work in the Aleutian Islands of the Alaskan
Peninsula, simultaneously testing new arctic
clothing for soldiers, and quietly performing
geological mapping of several islands, which
he published in the Bulletin of the Geological
Society of America.
Sharp was briefly an instructor in geology
at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
before World War II, then briefly an Assistant
Professor of Geology at the University of
Minnesota immediately after the war. As soon
as possible, Caltech's Division Chairman Ian
Campbell arranged for Sharp to return home
to Caltech as a full professor in 1947. Sharp
remained at Caltech for the next half-century,
and was quickly promoted to the Chairman of
the Division of Geological Sciences, later
renamed to the Division of Geological and
Planetary Sciences. While at Caltech, Sharp
mentored dozens of doctoral students in field
geomorphology; these are now working at the
United States Geological Survey facility in
Menlo Park, California and in leading geology
departments throughout North America.
Sharp became a published expert on the glacial
geomorphology of the Sierra Nevada range,
the Trinity Alps of northwestern California,
the Olympic Peninsula of Washington, and Mount
Saint Elias in the Fairweather Range of Alaska.
In the winter season, he focused his geological
field work in the Mojave Desert of California,
with emphasis on the geomorphology of Cima
Dome, and the sliding stones on the Racetrack
Playa in northern Death Valley.
Robert Phillip Sharp was an expert on the
physics of blown sand and the formation of
sand dunes in the Mojave Desert and the Coachella
Valley. He was awarded the Kirk Bryan Award
by the Geological Society of America for his
scholarly publications on the geomorphology
of sand dunes in desert terrain.
Professor Sharp loved weekend field trips,
and so he authored a number of field books
in geology of southern California, published
by Mountain Press. While in his sixties, Sharp
continued to teach rigorous field geology
to Caltech geology students during summer
classes. Field geology classes were taught
at Henry Mountain in Utah, where Grove Karl
Gilbert discovered laccoliths.
After retiring from Caltech, Sharp and his
wife Jean moved their home from Altadena to
Santa Barbara, where they lived for two decades
in a custom-built house on Gibraltar Road
overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Bob and Jean
Sharp are survived by two adult children,
Bruce Sharp and Christy Sharp.
== Awards and honors ==
The Hungaria asteroid 5426 Sharp, discovered
by Carolyn Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory
in 1985, was named in his honor. Naming citation
was published on 17 March 1995 (M.P.C. 24917).
On March 28, 2012, NASA named a mountain "Mount
Sharp" on the planet Mars, in his honor. The
mountain is located at the center of Gale
crater, where in August of the same year the
Mars rover Curiosity successfully landed.
However, on May 16, 2012, Mount Sharp had
officially been renamed "Aeolis Mons" by the
International Astronomical Union, while a
neighboring crater was instead named after
the scientist.
== See also ==
List of craters on Mars
List of mountains on Mars
List of mountains on Mars by height
== References ==
== External links ==
Robert P. Sharp - Biography/California Institute
of Technology
Robert P. Sharp - Biographical Memoir/National
Academy of Sciences
Robert P. Sharp - Oral History/Caltech
