Lawrence Alexander Hardie

Lawrence Alexander Hardie (January 13, 1933 – December 17, 2013) was an American geologist, sedimentologist, and geochemist.

Hardie was a professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. His research topics included evaporites, dolomitization, cyclical deposition of carbonate sediments, and plate tectonic driven changes in seawater chemistry. In the latter, he proposed that changes in the seafloor spreading rates at mid-ocean ridges have altered the composition of seawater throughout earth history, producing oscillations in the mineralogy of carbonate and evaporite precipitates. Specifically citing these scientific contributions, the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) awarded him the Francis J. Pettijohn Medal in 2003. While a student, Hardie played soccer, There he conducted experimental work on evaporite minerals. He was offered a full-time graduate fellowship to earn a Ph.D. He briefly returned to South Africa to marry Glenys Kathleen Smith in Durban, Oualline Distinguished Scholar at University of Texas, Austin, 1995. The "Hardie Teaching Laboratory", in Olin Hall at JHU has been dedicated in 2014. One of the annual Krieger School's Dean's Undergraduate Research Awards at JHU has been named after him, 2014. The Lawrence A. Hardie Memorial Fund in Earth and Planetary Sciences at JHU, 2014. Lawrence A. Hardie Commemorative Session, Geological Society of America meeting in Baltimore, MD, November 1–4, 2015.

Personal life and death Hardie and his wife Glenys became U.S. citizens. They had two children; his daughter Deborah obtained a degree in mathematics at JHU, and Russell studied engineering at Loyola University Maryland. His son Russell is currently a professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Dayton.

Hardie enjoyed jazz and attended concerts at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore. After moving from Baltimore to Pasadena, Maryland, in the 1970s, Hardie took to sailing on the Magothy River and the Chesapeake Bay. He taught his children and many of his students to sail. He later took up snow skiing and golf.

Hardie died at age 80 from complications of Alzheimer's disease on December 17, 2013, at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California.

Selected publications

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s