Harry (Hap) McSween
Dr. Harry (Hap) McSween is Distinguished Professor of Science, former head of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and former Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee. He holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry from The Citadel and graduate degrees in geology from the University of Georgia and Harvard. Unlike most geologists, McSween's attention is drawn to rocks falling from the heavens rather than to those already underfoot. For more than 28 years NASA has funded his research on meteorites, and he has published numerous scientific papers dealing with their implications for understanding how the solar system formed and evolved. He was one of the original proponents of the idea that a handful of unusual meteorites came from Mars, and he has worked extensively on martian meteorites. Dr. McSween was a member of the science team for the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft missions, and is a Co-investigator for the THEMIS instrument on Mars Odyssey which is presently mapping the Martian surface from orbit. He is also a Co-investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers now operating on Mars and for the Dawn spacecraft mission, which will study two large asteroids from orbit. McSween is particularly interested in communicating the excitement of science to the public. He is the author of three recently published popular books introducing planetary science, as well as a geochemistry textbook.
He is the recipient of the Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the namesake for asteroid 5223 McSween.
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