# Rodney C. Ewing
**Rodney C. Ewing** (also published as R. C. Ewing; 1946–2024) was an American mineralogist and materials scientist who spent more than fifty years studying how radiation damages minerals and ceramics, and who became a leading scientific voice on the disposal of nuclear waste.[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) He was the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security at Stanford University's Center for International Security and [Cooperation](https://www.edgepedia.org/cooperation) and a professor in Stanford's Department of Geological Sciences.[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) His work essentially defined a research field on radiation-induced damage in solids caused by radioactive elements incorporated in crystal structures, and it shaped the design of ceramic nuclear waste forms.[3](https://excel.geosociety.org/awards/15speeches/IanCampbell.htm) He died on July 13, 2024, at age 77.[4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Field | Mineralogy, geochemistry, and materials science of nuclear materials, especially radiation damage in minerals and ceramics[5](https://eps.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/rodney-ewing.html) |
| Signature work | "Alpha-Decay, Induced Fracturing in Zircon: The Transition from the Crystalline to the Metamict State," *Science*, 1987[6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.236.4808.1556) |
| Education | B.S. in geology, Texas Christian University, 1968 (summa cum laude); M.S. 1972 and Ph.D. 1974 (with distinction), Stanford University, on an NSF Fellowship[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) |
| Faculty appointments | University of New Mexico 1974–1997 (department chair 1979–1984); University of Michigan 1997–2013; Stanford from January 2014[4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died) • [3](https://excel.geosociety.org/awards/15speeches/IanCampbell.htm) |
| Public service | Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, 2012–2017[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) |
| Highest honor | Election to the National Academy of Engineering, 2017[7](https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/ewing-elected-national-academy-engineering) |
| Publication record | Over 750 research publications and 18 edited or co-edited volumes[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) |
## Education and career
Ewing earned a B.S. in geology from [Texas Christian University](https://www.edgepedia.org/texas-christian-university) in 1968, summa cum laude, and M.S. (1972), and Ph.D. (1974, with distinction) degrees from Stanford University, where he held an NSF Fellowship.[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) His graduate work, begun in 1970, focused on metamict minerals, minerals whose crystal structures have been destroyed by radiation from radioactive elements in them; at the time the topic drew virtually no interest in the Earth sciences or materials science communities.[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) • [3](https://excel.geosociety.org/awards/15speeches/IanCampbell.htm)
He joined the faculty of the [University of New Mexico](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-new-mexico) in 1974 and served as departmental chair from 1979 to 1984; UNM lists his field as mineralogy, geochemistry, and the materials science of nuclear materials.[4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died) • [5](https://eps.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/rodney-ewing.html) In 1997 he moved to the University of Michigan, where he held appointments in Earth and Environmental Sciences, Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, and Materials Science and Engineering until 2013.[4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died) He moved to Stanford in January 2014 as the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security and served as co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation from 2017.[3](https://excel.geosociety.org/awards/15speeches/IanCampbell.htm) • [4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died) He also held emeritus titles at his earlier institutions, as Edward H. Kraus Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Michigan and Regents' Emeritus Professor at [New Mexico](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-mexico).[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing)
## Representative work
According to his 1987 *Science* paper "Alpha-Decay, Induced Fracturing in Zircon: The Transition from the Crystalline to the Metamict State," he examined a natural zircon (ZrSiO₄) crystal from Sri Lanka in which alpha-decay damage produced zones one to hundreds of micrometers thick.[6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.236.4808.1556) The transition from the crystalline to the aperiodic metamict state occurred over a dose range of 2 × 10¹⁵ to 8 × 10¹⁵ alpha-events per milligram, equivalent to 0.15 to 0.60 displacements per atom.[6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.236.4808.1556) Because differently damaged zones expanded by different amounts, a systematic fracture pattern developed that did not propagate across aperiodic layers; above 8 × 10¹⁵ alpha-events per milligram no long-range order remained, and the paper noted that this type of damage would accumulate in actinide-bearing ceramic nuclear waste forms.[6](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.236.4808.1556)
## Radiation effects in ceramics and nuclear waste forms
Ewing turned the study of damaged natural minerals into a quantitative method for predicting the behavior of nuclear waste forms. Ion-beam irradiation let him compress geological time: damage that accumulates in a mineral over hundreds of millions of years could be reproduced in well-controlled experiments requiring less than an hour.[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) Studies of natural zircons from Sri Lanka delineated three stages of damage accumulation and showed that amorphization results from the multiple overlap of displacement cascades, a process of defect accumulation rather than damage within a single cascade; comparing natural zircon with plutonium-doped zircon showed that dose-rate variations as great as a factor of 10⁸ had no substantial effect on the damage process.[8](https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-abstract/76/9-10/1510/105147/Alpha-decay-event-damage-in-zircon) Natural zircons with ages up to 4 billion years, widely used in geochronology, provide abundant evidence of long-term durability of this class of ceramics.[9](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022311597002717)
This work bore directly on waste disposal. A comprehensive 1998 review in the *Journal of Materials Research*, on which he was an author from the University of Michigan, evaluated radiation effects in crystalline ceramics for the immobilization of high-level nuclear waste and plutonium, identifying as the central issue the effect of radiation-induced structural change on radionuclide release rates during corrosion.[10](https://www.nuce.psu.edu/motta/Publications/1998_Weber_JMR.pdf) His group's work identified zirconate-pyrochlore phases that can sustain high doses of alpha-decay damage from incorporated actinides and remain crystalline for hundreds of millions of years, making them candidates for plutonium immobilization.[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) He held a patent for a highly durable material for the immobilization of excess weapons plutonium.[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) In 2001 the Department of Energy's Office of Science named his work on radiation-resistant ceramics one of the top 101 innovations of the previous 25 years.[4](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died)
At Stanford his group studied how materials change under the combination of radiation fields, high pressures, and high temperatures common in nuclear environments, using [swift heavy ions](https://www.edgepedia.org/swift-heavy-ion) to replicate the damage caused by fission fragments and alpha particles, and diamond anvil cell experiments at high pressure.[11](https://ewing-group.stanford.edu/) His 2009 *Nature Materials* paper reported nanoscale manipulation of the properties of solids at high pressure using relativistic heavy ions.[12](https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2016-ap10144)
## Nuclear waste policy
Ewing co-edited *Radioactive Waste Forms for the Future* (1988) and *Uncertainty Underground: Yucca Mountain and the Nation's High-Level Nuclear Waste* ([MIT Press](https://www.edgepedia.org/mit-press), 2006), served on eleven National Research Council committees on nuclear waste and weapons, and chaired the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board from 2012 to 2017.[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) • [13](https://thebulletin.org/biography/rodney-c-ewing/) His view of the field matured toward caution: a 2024 article he co-authored in the *Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists* argued that although research on the safety of geological disposal has been ongoing for more than 50 years, the research community has not achieved a clear understanding of repository safety, and that scientists need a better understanding of the redundancy of the barriers assuring isolation over an unprecedented length of time.[14](https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2439761)
## Honors and service
Ewing was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2017 for his research on "the long-term behavior of complex ceramic materials to assess their suitability for engineered nuclear waste sequestration."[7](https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/ewing-elected-national-academy-engineering) According to a memorial article in *Elements*, his medals include the Hawley Medal of the Mineralogical Association of Canada (1997 and 2002); the Dana Medal (2006), Roebling Medal (2015), and Distinguished Public Service Medal (2019) of the [Mineralogical Society of America](https://www.edgepedia.org/mineralogical-society-of-america); the [Lomonosov Gold Medal](https://www.edgepedia.org/lomonosov-gold-medal) of the [Russian Academy of Sciences](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-academy-of-sciences) (2006); the Ian Campbell Medal of the American Geosciences Institute (2015); and the Medal of Excellence of the International Mineralogical Association (2015), along with an honorary doctorate from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (2007).[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) He was president of the Mineralogical Society of America in 2002 and of the International Union of Materials Research Societies in 1997–1998, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an Honorary Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2013).[2](https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing) • [1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346) He was a Founding Editor of the magazine *Elements*, now supported by 17 earth science societies, and in 2014 a Founding Executive Editor of *Geochemical Perspective Letters*.[15](https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/people/rodney_c_ewing) In 2023 he received the William B. Heroy Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to the American Geosciences Institute.[1](https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346)
## Legacy
The *Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists* published a 2025 special issue, "The enduring risks and new challenges of nuclear materials," dedicated to Ewing's scientific and policy contributions.[16](https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2445937) His final co-authored article, published in 2024, left the field with an open problem stated in his own words: after more than 50 years of research, the safety of geological disposal, and in particular the redundancy of the barriers that assure isolation over unprecedented timescales, remains without a clear scientific understanding.[14](https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2439761)
## References
1. Professor Rodney C. Ewing (1946–2024): The Consummate Multidisciplinary Scientist and Founding Editor of Elements, https://doi.org/10.2138/gselements.20.5.346
2. Rodney Ewing, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, https://sustainability.stanford.edu/people/rodney-ewing
3. Geological Society of America, 2015 AGI Medal in Memory of Ian Campbell: Rodney C. Ewing, https://excel.geosociety.org/awards/15speeches/IanCampbell.htm
4. Rod Ewing, geoscientist and nuclear security expert, has died, Stanford, https://sustainability.stanford.edu/news/rod-ewing-geoscientist-and-nuclear-security-expert-has-died
5. Rodney C. Ewing, University of New Mexico Earth & Planetary Sciences, https://eps.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/rodney-ewing.html
6. Alpha-Decay, Induced Fracturing in Zircon: The Transition from the Crystalline to the Metamict State, Science, 1987, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.236.4808.1556
7. Ewing elected to the National Academy of Engineering, Stanford FSI, https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/ewing-elected-national-academy-engineering
8. Alpha-decay event damage in zircon, American Mineralogist, 1991, https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-abstract/76/9-10/1510/105147/Alpha-decay-event-damage-in-zircon
9. The kinetics of alpha-decay-induced amorphization in zircon and apatite containing weapons-grade plutonium or other actinides, Journal of Nuclear Materials, 1997, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022311597002717
10. Radiation effects in crystalline ceramics for the immobilization of high-level nuclear waste and plutonium, Journal of Materials Research, 1998, https://www.nuce.psu.edu/motta/Publications/1998_Weber_JMR.pdf
11. Mineralogy and Materials Science of Nuclear Materials, Ewing Group, Stanford, https://ewing-group.stanford.edu/
12. Acceptance of the 2015 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America, American Mineralogist, https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2016-ap10144
13. Rodney C. Ewing, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, https://thebulletin.org/biography/rodney-c-ewing/
14. Final thoughts: The fragile connection of safety and science in the geological disposal of radioactive waste, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2439761
15. Rodney C. Ewing, Stanford CISAC, https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/people/rodney_c_ewing
16. The enduring risks and new challenges of nuclear materials: A special issue dedicated to Rodney C. Ewing's scientific and policy contributions, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2024.2445937
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Engineers and computer scientists › Engineers and materials scientists › Researchers in materials science and nanotechnology › Structural and functional ceramics and composites*
*Initially written Sep 21, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 25, 2026 · Last review: Sep 25, 2026*
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