Rod Ewing, the Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security and a professor in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, died July 13, 2024. He was 77.

Ewing became the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor in Nuclear Security when he joined Stanford in 2014 and had served as co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) since 2017. A major figure in the fields of mineral sciences, geochemistry, nuclear materials, and materials science and engineering, Ewing made fundamental contributions to understanding the effects of radiation on minerals and nuclear materials in his more than 50-year career.

Ewing is survived by his wife, Helga Fuchs; a son and daughter, Travis and Allison; a stepdaughter, Franziska; and four grandchildren, Marla and Luca in Berlin, Germany, and Kalea and Malina in Maryland. He is also survived by his 99-year-old mother Mary Ewing; his brother, Gary; his sister, Deborah; many nephews, nieces, and cousins; and a large cohort of previous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

He is remembered by colleagues for his profound intellect, leadership, and integrity, in addition to his generosity, kindness, and sense of humor. According to CISAC Associate Director Kelly Remus, “he embodied calm professionalism in the face of adversity and was a shining example of poise, grace, honesty, resilience, and humility.”

One of his former postdoctoral fellows, François Diaz-Maurin, reflected on how Ewing influenced his career in a personal tribute in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: “I would not be who I am today without Rod’s shepherding, good advice, and, most important, trust in me and my abilities. Rod has been an intellectual North Star; I wish every young professional could have a mentor of the quality and kindness of Rod Ewing.”

Earth & Planetary Sciences Department Chair Wendy Mao echoed that sentiment, remarking that Ewing took mentorship very seriously, exuding patience, infinite energy, and an unwillingness to give up on people. Ewing taught a variety of research and field courses through the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences (formerly Geological Sciences), including an IntroSem exploring the nexus of energy, nuclear weapons, and climate change.

“I had the great fortune of co-advising graduate students with Rod and collaborating on several research projects. I feel like I learned as much from him (maybe more) as did the students,” Mao said. “Rod had high standards and was a man of principles who expected excellence. He had an amazing way of thoughtfully listening to your problems, giving tough feedback when it was necessary, providing sage advice, and encouraging you to move forward. You left feeling buoyed and knowing Rod was in your corner.”

Pursuing purpose

Ewing earned a BS degree in geology from Texas Christian University in 1968, summa cum laude. In 1969, soon after arriving at Stanford with a National Science Foundation fellowship to attend graduate school, he was drafted into the Vietnam War.

“I was against the war,” Ewing recently told a reporter in his office on the third floor of the Green Building, a short walk from where his mineralogy studies began. “But I thought if I didn’t go, the next guy to get called up would be someone who was poor, and probably not as well educated as I was, and who wouldn’t have a chance. I just didn’t feel right about stepping out of line and sending the next guy.”

He served two years in the Army, with seven months in Vietnam as an interpreter and interrogator. His service ended three months early thanks to advocacy from the School of Earth Sciences dean, Richard Jahns. “It was a miracle,” Ewing said. When he returned to Stanford, deeply grateful for Jahns’ support, Ewing found geoscience researchers abuzz with recent developments in plate tectonic theory and opportunities to study the first lunar samples. “It was an aggressively active time in Earth sciences,” he recalled.

Forging a path

Around 1970, Ewing began thinking more about the broader political and cultural context for the knowledge he was creating as an Earth scientist. Newspapers reported that oil companies had funded an advertising blitz to defeat a ballot initiative that would have directed some California gas tax revenues to address air pollution and facilitate public transportation. “Their contributions at first were secret. I was offended by that,” Ewing said.

Inspired to act, he started organizing with a classmate to petition Earth science departments across the state to stop allowing oil companies behind the ad blitz to recruit students on campus. “We had hundreds of signatures of geology students and faculty saying we would not work for oil companies who had made such contributions,” he said. Ewing and his classmate mailed copies of the petition to the presidents of the oil companies involved – then took off to Alaska’s Seward Peninsula for the summer to map geology for the U.S. Geological Survey.

Amid the hyperactivity of geoscience research and the fun of organizing with fellow students, Ewing wanted to find a topic for quiet, unhurried scholarship once he returned from Alaska. He was intrigued by an esoteric group of minerals that can undergo metamictization, the gradual destruction of crystal structure due to radiation damage caused by the presence of radioactive elements.

“Radiation effects in minerals was a topic no one was interested in – and I mean no one. There was no interest and no application,” he said. “It was perfect.”

Working across fields

Ewing earned a master’s degree from Stanford in 1972 and a PhD in 1974, with distinction. Over time, he found purpose in applying his knowledge to the challenge of improving nuclear waste management.

Ewing was the Edward H. Kraus Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan, where he had faculty appointments in the departments of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Nuclear Engineering & Radiological Sciences, and Materials Science & Engineering from 1997 to 2013. He was a Regents’ Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, where he was a member of the faculty from 1974 to 1997 and served as Departmental Chair from 1979 to 1984.

With more than 750 publications in over 100 different journals, Ewing published widely in mineralogy, geochemistry, materials science, nuclear materials, physics, and chemistry. He was granted a patent (with Bill Weber and Werner Lutze) for the development of a highly durable material for the immobilization of excess weapons plutonium.

In 2001, his work on radiation-resistant ceramics was recognized by the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science Decades of Discovery as one of the top 101 innovations during the previous 25 years. This research led to the development of techniques to predict the long-term behavior of materials, such as those used in radioactive waste disposal.

After about a decade of testing and recommending new approaches to nuclear safety, Ewing turned more of his attention to the policy implications of his work and what it takes to move knowledge into action. To create a long-term plan for storing nuclear waste in the U.S., technical expertise will be paramount, Ewing said. “But you also need to pay attention to social issues and do it in a way that engenders trust.”

This will be especially true if the U.S. intends to expand its use of nuclear energy as a strategy to reduce carbon emissions, Ewing said. “Even without an expansion of nuclear power, the amounts of waste already generated for which there is no place to put it are huge,” Ewing said. “I think there is real urgency to solve this problem, but there is no political drive.”

Although he lived to see the disposal of transuranic waste at the Waste Isolation Plant in southwest New Mexico, his efforts for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel were never realized.

A life of service

Ewing was active in many professional societies, exemplifying the ideal that service is just as important as research. He was president of the Mineralogical Society of America (2002), the International Union of Materials Research Societies (1997-1998), and the American Geoscience Institute (2019). He served on the Board of Directors of the Geochemical Society, the Board of Governors of the Gemological Institute of America, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and the Foundation of the Geological Society of America.

Ewing served on 12 National Research Council committees for the National Academy of Sciences that have reviewed issues related to nuclear waste and nuclear weapons. In 2012, he was appointed by President Obama to serve as the chair of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, which is responsible for ongoing and integrated technical review of DOE activities related to transporting, packaging, storing, and disposing of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste; he stepped down from the board in 2017.

“Rod was not only an academic superstar, recognized around the world as the best in his field, but was also a major intellectual leader at CISAC and FSI, whose wisdom, judgment, and values I always admired and learned from,” said FSI Director Mike McFaul. “He was simply a stellar person in so many ways.”

In addition to his research contributions, Ewing was proud of the success of his students, his efforts to preserve the Harding pegmatite mine for teaching and research, and his role as founding editor of the magazine Elements, which is now supported by 17 Earth science societies.

His awards and honors were numerous, including the Dana Medal and the Roebling Medal from the Mineralogical Society of America, the Ian Campbell Medal from the American Geosciences Institute, the Medal of Excellence from the International Mineralogical Association, and fellowships in many professional societies. He was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering in 2017.

Ewing’s scientific legacy endures with Ewingite, a mineral named in his honor – an ephemeral yellow smudge on a wall in a single mine, Plavno, in the Czech Republic. It is currently the most structurally complex mineral on Earth.

A memorial will be planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Doctors Without Borders to be made in his name.