Gerald Friedman was born in 1921 in Berlin. His family moved to London just prior to World War II. Here Freidman studied Chemistry at Chelsea College. Friedman moved to the United States in 1946. First working as a pharmaceutical researcher. Friedman's education and professional involvement in the field of Geology went immediatley into high gear. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University; earned a Doctorate of Science from the University of London and received an honorary Doctorate of Natural Science from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Dr. Friedman was as a geochemist and petrologist in the Appalachians and the Canadian Shield. He then went on to become a research geologist and director of sedimentology research at the Amoco Research Laboratory in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Gerald Friedman  began teaching at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964 and retired from RPI in 1984. Soon after, he went on to join the faculty at the City University of New York, Brooklyn, where he worked with graduate students and post-doctoral researchers on carbonate deposits, regional stratigraphy, the environmental geology of rivers, amongst a variety of other topics. He retired from CUNY in 2004, but continues his research on the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Paleozoic deposits and prospective gas storage reservoirs in New York State and evaporite and carbonate deposition worldwide Countless activities related to Dr. Friedman's interests highlight his career. Dr. Friedman is the founder and director of the Northeastern Science Foundation in Troy, New York; served as an officer for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Geological Society of America, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and the New York State Geological Association; served as editor of several publications and as a member of more than 20 advisory committees. Furthermore Dr. Friedman is the author or co-author of over 500 publications. His classic textbook, Principles of Sedimentology, co-authored with J.E. Sanders is an extraordinary work exemplifying Dr. Friedman's interest in complex subject matter. Dr. Friedman has won a number of prestigeous awards for his work, including the American Geological Institute's 2005 Legendary Geoscientist Award, the Geological Society of America's Mary C. Rabbit Memorial Medal, the Sidney Powers Memorial Medal, the John T. Galey, Jr. Memorial Award, The Association of Earth Science Editors Award for Outstanding Editing and the Distinguished Educator Award. He is also the recipient of the SEPM Twenhofel Medal, and the Hollis D. Hedberg Award in Energy from the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at Southern Methodist University. Dr. Freidman's wife, Sue Tyler Friedman, was extremely supportive of her husband's work over the decades. Mrs. Friedman played an instrumental role in acquiring many of the materials which encompass the Friedman History of Geology Collection. A testament to Mrs. Friedman's dedication and contributions to the field is the Sue Tyler Friedman Medal, which is awarded by the Geological Society of London for work on the history of geology.

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