Robert T. Downs

Bob Downs was born in 1955 in Brandon, Manitoba. He completed his B.Sc. in mathematics at the University of British-Columbia in 1986 after ten years as a conctruction worker. He built the Camble Street Bridge, Burrard and Granville Street subway stations in Vancouver, and the Dempster Highway in the Yukon, to name a few of his projects. He worked as a professional mineral collector, drilling and blasting rocks. After stints as assistant curator of the UBC mineral museum under Joe Nagel and in the National Mineral Collection in Ottawa with Gary Ansell, Bob moved to Virgini aTech and obtained an M.Sc. in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1992 in mineralogy under the joint directions of Jerry Gibbs and Monte Boisen (math). His graduate studies were focused mainly on the analysis of thermal motion in crystals. He then accepted a post-doctoral position at the Geophysical Lab in Washington D.C. to learn high-pressure crystallographic techniques with Bob Hazen, Larry Finger, and Charlie Prewitt. In 1996 Bob took a faculty position at the University of Arizona. His research interests are currently focused on the high-pressure behavior of pyroxenes and the analysis of electron density and bonding in minerals. Bob will be promoted to associate professor this year. He is happily married to Dori and they have two boys, Gordie and Clay. They throw a fine party each year during the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, with an open invitation to mineralogists and Canadians.