Earth > Meet the OLogist: Ed Mathez

ED MAATHEZ: My name is Edmond Mathez. I'm a curator in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History. I'm a geologist. I guess you could say that geologists study how the Earth works.

But that includes a lot of different things. I mean, some geologists look for oil. Other geologists study how ore deposits form. Some geologists study the history of the Earth. Other geologists study the interior of the Earth, and you know, what it's made of and how it moves. Some geologists study volcanoes, and some geologists study earthquakes, and try to understand how they impact society. So the field covers-- the field is very broad.

I am a geologist known as an igneous petrologist. And I know that sounds kind of esoteric. In fact, it is. Because what I do is I study mainly how molten parts of the earth solidify.

But I'm also interested in other subjects. I'm interested in climate, for example, and I've studied climate in some detail-- not so much as a research geologist, but to understand-- but as a teacher, really, to be able to explain it to other people.

ED MATHEZ: Well I enjoy doing science, and I think one of the-- well, there are couple reasons. First of all, in general I enjoy learning new things. That's perhaps them funnest part of being a scientist.

But I really enjoyed being a geologist because that brings me to the remote parts of the world, to places that no one else, or very few other people have been to. And I really enjoy doing that and working in the field in remote parts of the world.

ED MATHEZ: My favorite place in the museum, I think, is the Hall of African Mammals. I think those dioramas are really thrilling. They remind me of places that I've been in Africa. And so that's, I think, why I'm drawn to that.

Of course, I like all the rock samples in the Hall of Planet Earth. We collected most of them, so that's why I like them. But I think of all of those, there are two of them that really touch me. One are the sulfide chimneys that we recovered from the ocean floor. And that was a very complicated project. And the other one is a fossil stromatolite that we got from Mauritania.

ED MATHEZ: When I was growing up, I had no idea I wanted to be a geologist. But then I ended up in Montana, working in the mountains and being out in the field, and looking at these unbelievably complicated rocks-- that turned me into a geologist right away. 

ED MATHEZ: If I weren't a scientist, I'd probably be a historian. I'm not exactly sure why that is, perhaps it's because I had a good teacher in high school that was a historian.

Actually, what I'm doing now, as a geologist, is not too much different than a historian. In some ways, geologists are historians of the Earth.

ED MATHEZ: For the kids that want to be scientists, I think probably it means not very much what it is you study, but rather I think being a scientist requires that you have a good imagination. It requires imagination. And it's not clear to me how you develop imagination.

I think perhaps one way to do it is to look at the world around you and see the-- I mean, the world around you is enormously complicated but endlessly fascinating. Certainly at 10, 12, 14 years old, I spent a lot of time outside in the natural world. And I think that gave me a love for natural science.

ED MATHEZ: If you happen to think science is boring or relevant, I actually don't blame you. Because looking at my own kids' textbooks in science, they're pretty boring and irrelevant. I think, though, that the things that have interested me about science, again, are being outside and looking at the wonder of nature. So for those of you that think life, in general, is boring or irrelevant, I would urge you to go outside and look at the world around you, and stay out of the malls. 

ED MATHEZ: As far as kids' books are concerned, I always like reading Roald Dahl to my son. You know, I remember "James and the Giant Peach." I remember "My Uncle Oswald," I think it was. And then there was another book, "George's Magic Medicine," I think. I don't remember if those are the actual titles. But those, I vaguely remember those books. 

ED MATHEZ: My favorite flavor of ice cream is all of them. But I really like Cherry Garcia.