(Born: Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 19 February 1890; Died: Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., 31 December 1973) American mineralogist.

Murdoch was exposed to natural history at an early age because his father worked for the Smithsonian Institute. In 1907 he entered Harvard University, from which he received geological science degrees in 1911, 1912 and finally 1915 (Ph.D.). He entered into a successful, non-geological, business career, but returned to the science when he joined the faculty of the emerging department of geology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He retired in 1959, but continued to visit the mineral laboratory until the day of his death. He was president of the American Mineralogical Society in 1960.

Biographical references: ABA: II 433, 386. • American Mineralogist: 60 (1975), nos. 5-6, 511-13, portrait [by R.W. Webb]. • Sarjeant, Geologists, 1980: 3, 1770. • WBI. • World Who's Who in Science: 1228.

1. English, 1916.
Microscopical Determination | Of The | Opaque Minerals | An Aid To The Study Of Ores | By | Joseph Murdoch, Ph.D. | Geologist, Secondary Enrichment Investigation | First Edition | First Thousand | New York | John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | London: Chapman & Hall, Limited | 1916.

8°: [i]-vii, [1], [1]-165, [1] p., colored frontispiece, illus.

Contents: [i-ii], Title page, verso "Copyright, 1916, | By | John Wiley & Sons, Inc."; iii-vi, "Preface."; vii, "Contents."; [1 pg], Blank.; [1]-153, Text.; 154-162, "Condensed Determinative Table."; 163-165, "Index Of Minerals."; [1 pg], Blank.

Very scarce. "The determinative tables of this book, in practically their present form, constitute the principal portion of a thesis presented as part of the requirement for the degree of doctor of philosophy at Harvard university." Bibliography: p. 16-18.

Bibliographical references: Dana's 7th (Bibliography): 77. • NUC. • USGS Library Catalog.

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