Eugene Cameron, expert on minerals, lunar samples, dies

Funeral services are scheduled Saturday, April 24, for Eugene N. Cameron, an authority on economic geology and a pioneer of optical methods for the study of minerals, including those returned to Earth from the moon by the Apollo astronauts.

Cameron died Wednesday, April 21, at a Madison hospital. He was 88.

A member of the geology and geophysics faculty for 34 years, Cameron devoted much of his research at Wisconsin to problems of metallic ore deposits, and was an early authority on the use of microscopy for the study of metallic minerals.

In 1968, at the apex of the Apollo program, Cameron was asked to study lunar rocks and dust, identifying a new mineral, and laying the groundwork for the identification of economically important mineral deposits on the moon. After his retirement from Wisconsin in 1981, he estimated the moon’s reserves of helium-3, an isotope of helium that holds potential as fuel for fusion reactors, yet-to-be-developed reactors that would be ignited by the same forces that power the sun.

In a 1994 interview, Cameron reflected on his work with the Apollo program: “What it did, I think, is it brought home to all of us, in a way that we didn’t appreciate before, how clearly unique the Earth is,” he said. “You became aware you were working on something that … is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And I was very happy and honored to be a part of it.”

Born in Atlanta, Ga., Aug. 10, 1910, Eugene Nathan Cameron was raised in Baltimore and earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from New York University in 1932. At Columbia University, he earned his master’s (1934) and doctorate (1939) in the same subject.

Before joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in 1947, Cameron worked as an instructor at Columbia and in 1942 joined the U.S. Geological Survey. During World War II, he was in charge of the survey’s investigations of strategically important pegmatite minerals, a role later expanded to include all industrial minerals.

In 1961, Cameron wrote the seminal text, “Ore Microscopy.” It was the first text in the English language to give adequate treatment to the theory of reflected light optics. For four years, he applied those techniques to the study of opaque minerals contained in lunar samples collected on the Apollo missions to the moon.

Using an electron microscope, he studied regolith, the dust that covers the moon’s surface and determined the mineral deposits held by the Earth’s satellite. A special focus, was on samples obtained from areas of the moon that appear from Earth to be dark. In those samples he found lunar iron and high concentrations of titanium.

Cameron is survived by his wife, the former Adrienne Macksound, a daughter and two sons. Memorial services will be held at the Cress Funeral Home in Madison at 3 p.m. Saturday.