Full Name: Stephen Edward Haggerty

Position: Distinguished research professor, Florida International University (FIU), Miami, US, since 2002

Date and Place of Birth: April 11, 1938, Primrose, Germiston, South Africa

Education: Diploma in sugar manufacture, City & Guilds, London, 1957; Mine Assay Prize, Johannesburg Tech, 1958; Leith Gold Mining, Canada, 1960; Associateship of the Royal School of Mines, London, 1964; DIC Mineral Exploration; PhD (mineralogy of rock magnetism), Imperial College, London, 1968; postdoctoral Carnegie fellowship, Washington DC, 1968 to1972; University of Massachusetts, 1972 to 2002

Research: Lunar sample and meteorite research, former principal investigator on all Apollo manned and Soviet unmanned sample-return programmes; oxide ore deposits, kimberlites, carbonatites, diamond research and upper mantle evolution

First Job: Bench chemist, Umfolozi Sugar Mill, Mtubatuba, KwaZulu-Natal, 1957

Size of First Pay Packet: £5

Teaching Style: Making it clear from the outset that we do not know the origin of life and that we will never reappear when we become extinct; placing emphasis on the need to know more about the earth we walk on, live on and love

Personal Best Achievement: Recognition of new lunar mineral, Armalcolite, named after the astronauts Arm(strong), Al(drin) and Col(lins).

People Who Have Had the Biggest Influence on Your Career: My high school teacher, Doc Venter, who thought it more important to learn about the earth than about Boyle’s Law and Charles’ Law; and Nobel Prize winner PMS Blackett, head of the physics department, Imperial College, later Lord Blackett, and member of Churchill's war cabinet

Person You Would Most Like to have Met: Albert Einstein

Businessperson Who Impresses You Most: Bill Gates

Philosophy of Life: Don’t give up

Biggest Ever Opportunity: Working on the moon; walking would have been better

Biggest Ever Disappointment: Being beaten by the Russians to name a mineral that we found in Paraguay and Brazil, and they found in Siberia. It was submitted to the International Mineralogical Society at about the same time, but I accepted that it be credited to the Russians. On a later visit to Yakutsk, a delegate, looking at our badges, jumped up and gave me a bear hug. He was the person who had recognised and named Tausonite (strontium titanate). He could not believe that I had accepted their slight time priority with such good grace. I realise now that I had unintentionally participated in the sort of simultaneity that Einstein once described as being ‘in the ether’. I still feel a glow

Hope for the Future: A deeper understanding of the interior of the earth, planetary bodies, earthlike exoplanets and carbonado

Favourite Reading: I read widely because of my scientific interests but also as part of the education process. For relaxation, spy, detective and historical novels

Favourite TV Programme: I rarely watch television – news is the exception

Favourite Food/Drink: Curry, by far

Favourite Music: Classical and a few others. I was in England in the sixties, so I have a deep passion for Beatles music

Favourite Sport: Rugby

Hobbies: Pottering around the house

Car: For many years I drove Porches 911, 912, 356B, but now, being an impecunious professor, I drive an old Volvo

Pets: Doberman pinscher. We had them as kids and they had a strong influence on us

Married: To Ukrainian-born artist Tatania, for 25 years

Memberships: American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, Mineralogical Society of America, Geological Society of America