Charles "Charlie" Langmuir has discovered hydrothermal sites in three ocean basins, and recently co-led the first investigation of the Arctic Ocean ridge system. He has carved a distinguished career in the international science arena investigating many aspects of the solid earth geochemical cycle. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Geochemical Society, and the American Geophysical Union, from which he received the N. L. Bowen Award in 1996. He received the Holmes Medal of the European Union of Geosciences in 2003. Charlie received his B.A. from Harvard University and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his dissertation research focused on major and trace elements in basalts. He has been at Harvard since 2002, after 20 years at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Charlie has explored the seafloor through some 20 research cruises over the last two decades.