Chen-Lin Chou

Chen-Lin Chou was born on October 8, 1943, in Jiangsu Province, China, the eldest son of 8 children. He journeyed from Shanghai to Taiwan with his family when he was just 5 years old. He graduated with a degree in Geology from National Taiwan University in 1965 and then traveled to the United States of America. While a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, he met Susan Wen and they were married on June 14, 1970. He received many honors over the course of his graduate studies, but the crowning achievement was the coveted Nininger Meteorite Award for his original paper entitled, "Gallium and Germanium in the Metal and Silicate Phases of L- and LL- Chondrites: Implications for the Thermal History of the Chondrites." In 1971, he not only received his PhD in Geochemistry, but his daughter Cynthia was born. The young family drove across the country for him to start his academic career at the University of California Los Angeles, and drove again across the country in 1975 to Toronto, Canada, where his son Peter was born in 1976. He was busy with research and teaching at California State University, Fullerton, University of Toronto, and McMaster University. Four years later he settled in Champaign, IL, where he was a Geologist in the Illinois State Geological Survey studying the geochemistry and coal geology of the Illinois Basin until his retirement in 2002. By then he had already been around the world many times, but in 2002 his travels came full circle. He returned to the small town of JiangYin to visit his birthplace in China, and was so moved to see that the house in which he was born was still standing. He began his collaborative research with colleagues in East Asia in 1993 when he accepted a visiting professorship at the National Central University in Taiwan. He held academic appointments at the China University of Mining and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Suzhou University, and Western Kentucky University. He was elected Fellow to the Geological Society of America in 1997. He was consultant to the Exploration and Development Research Institute of Taiwan, and served on the editorial board for the Journal of Palaeogeography and the International Journal of Coal Geology. Over the years Chen-Lin's research interests have spanned meteorites, elemental and isotopic geochemistry, and ore deposit geochemistry, as well as the vast environmental impact of human usage of coal as a energy source, and the often negative impact of mining on the health of the local population. He authored over 130 publications, taught university courses, and was invited to lecture and chair scientific meetings, including delivering the keynote address at international symposiums held in China. He was also the first to organize a series of scientific meetings called the Cross-Straits Conference on Resources and Environmental Geochemistry, bringing together scientists from China and Taiwan for the first time in history. Chen-Lin was a deeply philosophical man who devoted his life to his family and his scientific pursuits. In 2009, Chen-Lin and Susan moved to Wilmette, IL, in order to be closer to their grandchildren, Matthew and Anna Lorenz, and to O'Hare airport where they could catch an easy flight to California to visit their other 2 grandchildren, Ryan and Andrew Chou. To Chen-Lin, his wife, children, and grandchildren were the shining light of his life. In their hearts, as well as the hearts of all others who knew him, he will live on forever.