As a marine chemist conducting research in the 1980s, George Luther was continually circling between the field to collect salt-marsh sediment samples and the lab to measure their chemical makeup. Concerned about chemical reactions changing results during sampling, he invented a creative solution in the early 1990s: a gold-tipped microelectrode sensor that could take instantaneous readings right in the ground.
Two decades later, Luther has been recognized for his novel ideas by being named a 2012 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellow for “his pioneering research in redox reactions, trace element speciation and development of novel in situ electrochemical methods.”
As the Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Oceanography, Luther studies the different forms chemical elements take in marine waters and sediments. Currently, he is researching nanoparticulate pyrite from hydrothermal vents, manganese cycling in the environment, algae-generated particles affecting air quality, and opportunities for collaboration with Xiamen University in China.
His broad range of research settings have included a metal-contaminated site in New Jersey, the oxygen-depleted Black Sea, warm-water springs of Yellowstone National Park, hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and even potentially habitable environments on Mars.
Luther has published more than 200 scientific papers, been selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow, received the Geochemical Society’s Claire C. Patterson Award for outstanding contributions to environmental geochemistry and received UD’s highest faculty honor, the Francis Alison Award.