2008 – Charles PREWITT
Charles Prewitt was the inaugural recipient of the IMA Medal for Excellence, in recognition of his research eminence in developing a wide variety of new fields in crystal chemistry, material sciences and mineral physics. He was one of the pioneers in the use of the single-crystal diffractometer for determining the structures of minerals, creating computer programs to handle diffraction data. With Robert D. Shannon he compiled the tables of the effective ionic radii of elements that became the foundation of modern crystal chemistry of minerals. He also led the development of synchrotron radiation for solving problems in mineral physics, a field that he himself established by convening (with 2021 IMA medalist Robert Hazen) the first mineral physics conference held in October 1977 and later led as the director of the Geophysical Laboratory.