WASHINGTON POST - Marilyn Fogel, a scientist dubbed the “isotope queen” for illuminating fundamental scientific questions through analysis of atomic isotope ratios, died May 11 at her home in Mariposa, Calif. She was 69.
Dr. Fogel spent much of her career at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, where she pioneered the use of isotope ratios in the relatively new field of biogeochemistry. She helped show the value of knowing stable isotope ratios and of blending biology, chemistry and geology in the study of nature, ecology, the long-term history of living things and the possibilities of life on other worlds.