Dr. Dorian G. W. Smith passed away in 2013. His areas of expertise were mineralogy, meteoritics and microanalysis. He developed sophisticated, multi-media mineral databases and software for mineral identification.
Collaborations:
- Developed MinIdent between 1981-1987.
Joint Publications:
- Smith, D. G. W., & Leibovitz, D. P. (1986) MinIdent User’s Manual. A FORTRAN 77 program for mineral identification. Computing Services, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- Smith, D. G. W., & Leibovitz, D. P. (1986) MinIdent: A data base for minerals and a computer program for their identification. Canadian Mineralogist. 24(4): 695-708.
- Smith, D. G. W., & Leibovitz, D. P. (1984) A computer-based system for identification of minerals on the basis of composition and other properties. 27th International Geological Congress. Extended Abstract, 5: 169.
- Smith, D. G. W., Omoumi, H., & Leibovitz, D. P. (1989) The MinIdent database: some recent development. 28th International Geological Congress. Abstracts 3: 138-139
More information:
- Dorian was emeritus professor at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- Dorian sold MinIdent-Win at www.micronex.ca (expired site).
Dorian Glenn Whitney Smith was my father. As a professor at rhe Uinversity of Alberta he oversaw and managed the first electron microprobe in the Americas. He served as President of the International Mineralogical Association. Between 15 and 20% of all minerals yet identified had their properties described by Dorian G. W. Smith for the first time. He was passionate about the work until the very end.