Steve Haggerty's birthplace in the Witwatersrand Basin, some 50 km downwind from the Bushveld Complex and the Premier Diamond Mine, helped him overcome a strong desire to study nuclear physics. After emigrating to Canada, spending a year under canvas around James Bay, and another as a technician in the Departments of Physics and Geophysics at Imperial College, London, a career in geology was molded. He graduated from the Royal School of Mines in Economic Geology in 1964 and received his Ph.D. from the University of London in 1968. A three-year post-doctoral Carnegie Fellowship followed at the Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and since 1971 he has been at the University of Massachusetts.
Haggerty's major interests are in reflected-light microscopy, magnetic mineralogy, and oxidation-reduction systems relevant to magmatic ore deposits and igneous petrogenesis. His research has revolved around the Fe-Ti-O system and ranges from studies of lunar samples and meteorites to diamonds and the evolution of the upper mantle. He was a Principal Investigator for 10 years in the U.S. Apollo and Soviet Luna sample return programs, and served on the Lunar Sample Analysis Planning Team. His current research projects, earthbound and mantle-dedicated, are studies of kimberlites, carbonatites, and associated alkali rocks and xenoliths. Field projects in west and southern Africa have been extended to Brazil and Australia, with recent visits to Syria, Siberia, and China.