John Holloway, 77, emeritus professor of chemistry and geology in ASU’s School for Molecular Sciences, died on Sept. 6, 2017. Following a stint in the military, he was educated in geology at the University of Oregon, Eugene. He went on to earn a doctorate in geochemistry at Penn State University. There he published, with others, a series of groundbreaking papers on the properties of water at high pressures and temperatures. Holloway came to ASU as part of an effort to combine the research fields of chemistry and geology, continuing an effort begun by Leroy Eyring in the chemistry department. Holloway started full time in 1969.



After a sabbatical spent at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory in its high-pressure laboratory, Holloway began to build an innovative and highly productive experimental program in high-pressure research. As his Depths of the Earth (DotE) laboratory became established, it served as a waypoint for a continuous stream of students, postdoc researchers, and visitors from around the world. 



In addition to his academic work, Holloway helped to found, with ASU colleagues John McNerney and Peter Buseck, the Jerome Instrument Company. Based in the abandoned high school gymnasium in Jerome, AZ, JIC manufactured an environmental mercury sensor, still the primary mercury detection system in use today. After JIC was sold in 1986, Holloway started another business, Depths of the Earth, Inc., selling high-pressure devices.

Toward the end of the 1990s Holloway's research interests turned toward biology. He began undertaking experiments to determine the origin of life-forming organic compounds, and the survival of microorganisms in "black smokers," thermal springs on the ocean bottom. This work included a trip to the ocean bottom in the deep-diving research submarine Alvin, along with the development of massive laboratory vessels to simulate the heat and pressure found in black smokers.



Before retirement, he took a final sabbatical year and did research at the University of Botswana and for DeBeers in Johannesburg and Kimberly, South Africa. The second half of the sabbatical was spent at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel where he did research with a former Caltech colleague. He also gave talks in Cairo and traveled to the western deserts of Egypt to examine the unusual stone and rock formations there.



John Holloway retired from ASU in 2007. After retirement, Holloway and his wife, Helen Rosen, traveled to Japan, where John had a six-month appointment from Kyoto University to do research in both Kyoto and Beppu, Japan. On returning, he and Rosen moved to Ashland, Oregon, where he taught geology classes for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. In 2012, he was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. He is survived by Rosen, two sons with former wife Ele Lavender, and two grandsons. (Source: ASU Insight)