Meyrowitzite was found underground at the Markey mine by a collecting party that included two of the authors, Tony Kampf and Joe Marty. The Markey mine is one of several inactive uranium mines in Red Canyon in SE Utah that have recently yielded many new minerals, most of which contain the uranyl group, UO22+. The structure of meyrowitzite is based on a novel corrugated heteropolyhedral sheet made up of linked uranyl-tricarbonate clusters. The mineral is named for American analytical chemist Robert Meyrowitz (1916-2013). During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army and, because of his skills as a chemist, he was assigned to work on the Manhattan Project. After the war, he joined the United States Geological Survey (USGS), from which he retired in 1973. In his years at the USGS, he was especially known for his knack for developing innovative new methods for analyzing small and difficult to study mineralogical samples, and well-known for his formulation of the high-index immersion liquids (1.74 to 2.00) that are still in use for optical determinations. He published prolifically, often collaborating on the descriptions of new minerals, many of which were from the uranium deposits of the western U.S. Among them was zellerite, the dimorph of the meyrowitzite.

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