Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Looking back at a long and creative career in radiocarbon dating of Dr. Georges Bonani, one can say for sure that Georges had all qualities needed to build the solid reputation of the ETH 14 C laboratory.His background in physics (studies at ETH and his doctoral thesis (Bonani 1977) was essential to the development of the AMS by the team around Willy Wölfli (Bonani et al. 1984a;Suter et al. 1984;Synal et al. 2021).The first applications were published in the early 1980s (Bill et al. 1984; Bonani et al. 1984b;Giger et al. 1984).Until 2012, i.e., when the transition to the AMS 14 C analysis using MICADAS took place, Georges performed the demanding tuning of the EN 6 MV tandem for 14 C analysis and data reduction.These would take place every 4 to 6 weeks, the time that Georges filled with talking to users, sampling unique objects and working on data, and sending the letters with results.His perfectly organized files are still my source of information whenever data produced 30 years ago has to be revisited.But the list of his involvement in our laboratory life is not ending there.He was always helpful with any questions.His problem-solving skills, so prominent with the EN tandem tuning, were appreciated in the group, and everyone could always count on his friendly support even with everyday issues.Simultaneously, Dr. Bonani was one of the most cited scientists at ETH when the citation index started to be an important issue in the late 1990s.His involvement in studies which employed 14 C dating was not only by providing the AMS analysis.Georges was actively involved in data analysis and interpretation of the results.Often, he was also involved in designing the sampling strategies and supported experimental and pioneering approaches such as dating pollen grains Georges Bonani at the AMS conference in Zurich, 1984
Source: Radiocarbon
DOI: 10.1017/rdc.2021.60
Author: Irka Hajdas
Institution: ETH Zurich
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W3192241679