Heinz Adolf Lowenstam (9 October 1912 – 7 June 1993) was a German-born, Jewish-American paleoecologist celebrated for his discoveries in biomineralization: that living organisms manufacture substances such as the iron-containing mineral magnetite within their bodies. He is also renowned for his pioneering research on coral reefs and their influence on biologic processes in the geologic record.
Early life and education Heinz Adolf Lowenstam was born in 1912 in Upper Silesia, which was then southeastern Germany but was ceded to Poland following World War I. His father, Kurt (1883–1965), was the younger brother of Rabbi Arthur Löwenstamm. His mother was Frieda Sternberg (born in 1889). He had a younger sister, Hildegard (Hilda), who married Kurt Weissenberg and had a daughter, Doris. Heinz's hometown of Siemjanowicz was located in a mining district, and his fascination with geology began as a child playing on the piles of mine tailings, against the backdrop of Germany's great economic depression of the 1920s. His scientific interests were encouraged by his family and fostered through his attendance at an experimental hochschule that focused on mathematics, physics, and chemistry. It was here that Heinz started his first fossil collection and shaped his desire to become a paleontologist.
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