Henryk Stenzel

Henryk Bronislaw Stenzel (7 February 1899 in Pabianice – 5 September 1980 in Houston), was an American paleontologist of Polish and Jewish descent.

Biographical data

Biography

Born Henryk Sztencel, he studied at the University of Breslau, where the administration forced him to change the spelling of his name. In 1922 he got a doctoral degree on the basis of a thesis prepared under Hans Cloos. In 1925 he emigrated to the USA, where in 1929 he married Elsie née Brodbeck. He worked on Texas A&M University (then Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas), University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Rice University, and Louisiana State University. He retired in 1977 because of health issues; he died after a long illness.

Functions and dignities

• President of the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (1949–50)
• President of the Paleontological Society (1955–56)
• Officiale delegate of the USA to the International Geological Congress (Mexico City, 1956)
• Honorary member of the Gulf Coast Section, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists

Scientific achievements

In the USA Stenzel worked mainly on Tertiary paleontology, including speciation in fossil bivalves. He described several new taxa of fossil bivalves. His main achievement is a complete taxonomic revision of fossil oysters, published as a separate volume of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology (volume N-3, 1971).

Eponymy

Stenzelia MacNeil, 1954, a genus (or subgenus) of Eocene bivalves, Stenzeloceras Whetstone & Teichert, 1978, a genus of Cretaceous nautiloids, and a few species have been named in his honor.