Norman D. Newell - Scientific Achievements

Scientific Achievements

Newell was an eminent paleontologist and systematist of Upper Paleozoic and Mesozoic bivalves. He taught geology and paleontology at Columbia University from 1945 to 1977. During his tenure at Columbia he trained a number of students who later became prominent paleontologists, including Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Steven M. Stanley, Alan Cheetham, Alfred Fischer, and Don Boyd. Stephen Jay Gould remarked, "The work of graduate students is part of a mentor's reputation forever, because we trace intellectual lineages in this manner. I was Norman Newell's student, and everything that I ever do, as long as I live, will be read as his legacy."

An important part of his research was the study of mass extinctions on the history of life, publishing on the topic well before the Alvarez hypothesis made such theorizing respectable.

Newell was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Philosophical Society. He was also the author of numerous scientific papers and several books including On Creation and Evolution, which criticized the arguments of creationists. In 1961 Newell was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. His numerous awards include accolades from Yale University, the American Geological Institute, and the American Museum of Natural History.