Joseph I. Goldstein, a former university vice president and founder of the Microscopy Schoolheld annually at Lehigh, died June 27 at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was 76.
Goldstein joined the Lehigh faculty in 1964 as a professor of materials science and engineering after earning his Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He developed a global reputation for his work in microanalysis and for his study of the materials found in meteorites and lunar rocks.
In 1969, Goldstein joined the late Charles B. Sclar, professor of geological sciences, as one of two Lehigh researchers selected by NASA to study particles taken by American astronauts from the surface of the moon during the Apollo XI and Apollo XII missions.
In 1970, Goldstein founded the Lehigh Microscopy School, a collection of courses held every summer on various aspects of electron microscopy. The School, in which Goldstein participated actively until June 2014, recently celebrated its 45th year of operation and has trained to date nearly 6,000 engineers, scientists and technicians from around the world.
Goldstein served as Lehigh’s vice president for graduate studies and research from 1983 to 1990. In that time, he helped write successful proposals to establish the Ben Franklin Advanced Technology Center, the ATLSS (Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems) Engineering Research Center, the Center for Polymer Science and Engineering, the Center for Molecular Bioscience and Biotechnology, and the Institute for Marine Sciences.
In 1990, Goldstein left Lehigh to become dean of engineering at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, a position he held until 2004.
Read the full story at the Lehigh University News Center.
-Kurt Pfitzer is a writer with Lehigh University Media Relations.
