Documents for "Geology and Oceanography: Biographies":

• Agassiz, Alexander 1835-1910, American naturalist and industrialist, b. Neuchâtel, Switzerland; son of Louis Agassiz, stepson of Elizabeth Cary Agassiz. He came to the United States in 1849 and studied at Harvard,...

• Agassiz, Louis (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz) , 1807-73, Swiss-American zoologist and geologist, b. Môtiers-en-Vuly, Switzerland. He studied at the universities of Zürich, Erlangen (Ph.D., 1829), Heidelberg, and Munich (M.D., 1830). Agassiz...

• Ballard, Robert Duane 1942-, American marine geologist, b. Wichita, Kans.; Ph.D. Univ. of Rhode Island, 1974. In 1969, he began an association with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where he eventually became the...

• Brongniart, Alexandre 1770-1847, French geologist, mineralogist, and chemist. As director of the Sèvres porcelain factory from 1800, he was responsible for its international fame. He was professor of mineralogy at the...

• Buch, Christian Leopold, Freiherr von 1774-1853, German geologist and paleontologist, graduate of the mining academy, Freiberg, Germany, and taught by geologist Abraham G. Werner , who founded the influential Neptunist School (rocks from aqueous origins). Buch's later studies of Mt. Vesuvius found flaws in Werner's hypothesis. Buch is noted for his study of volcanism in the...

• Buckland, William 1784-1856, English geologist. He was dean of Westminster from 1845. First to note in England the action of glacial ice on rocks, he did much to bring physical and natural science into high repute...

• Burnet, Thomas c.1635-1715, English cleric and scientist, b. Croft, in Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Northallerton and Cambridge. Following travels in Europe, Burnet published in 1681 the first two parts...

• Chamberlin, Thomas Chrowder 1843-1928, American geologist, b. Mattoon, Ill., grad. Beloit College, 1866. He was professor of geology at Beloit (1873-82), president of the Univ. of Wisconsin (1887-92), and professor of geology...

• Cousteau, Jacques Yves 1910-97, French oceanographer and naval officer. In 1943, with Émil Gagnan, he invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba). He founded (1945) the French navy's undersea...

• Dana, James Dwight 1813-95, American geologist, mineralogist, and naturalist, b. Utica, N.Y., grad. Yale, 1833. His studies of the S Pacific, NW United States, Europe, and elsewhere led to changes in ideas on...

• Dawson, Sir John William 1820-99, Canadian geologist and educator, b. Pictou, N.S., studied at the Univ. of Edinburgh. After serving (1850-55) as superintendent of education in Nova Scotia, he was from 1855 to 1893...

• De la Beche, Sir Henry Thomas 1796-1855, English geologist. As a result of his private undertaking to prepare a geological map of England, the British government became aware of the need for such mapping. In 1832 his work was...

• Deluc, Jean André 1727-1817, Swiss geologist. During the first half of his life he was engaged mainly in business in Switzerland. He also made scientific excursions in the Alps on whose natural history he was an...

• Dolomieu, Déodat Guy Silvain Tancrède Gratet de 1750-1801, French geologist. He contributed to the study of volcanic geology, especially through examination and comparison of the products of volcanoes. In 1791 he reported on the character of...

• Dunbar, William 1749-1810, American scientist in the old Southwest, b. near Elgin, Scotland. He came to America in 1771. Commissioned by President Jefferson to investigate the Ouachita and Red River areas, he...

• Dutton, Clarence Edward 1841-1912, American geologist, b. Wallingford, Conn., grad. Yale, 1860. After service in the army during and after the Civil War, he was a member (1875-91) of the U.S. Geological Survey. Working...

• Eaton, Amos 1776-1842, American naturalist, b. Chatham, N.Y., grad. Williams College, 1799. After practicing law for a time, he conducted pioneer geological surveys in Albany and Rensselaer counties, N.Y...

• Ewing, William Maurice 1906-74, American oceanographer and geologist, b. Lackney, Tex., grad. Rice Institute, now Rice Univ. (B.S., 1926; M.A., 1927; Ph.D., 1931). He taught physics and geology at the Univ. of Pittsburgh...

• Fuchs, Sir Vivian Ernest 1908-99, English geologist and explorer, b. Kent, educated at Cambridge. He was a geologist on expeditions to Greenland (1929) and to Africa (1930-38). After army service in World War II, Fuchs...

• Geikie, Sir Archibald 1835-1924, British geologist, educated at the Univ. of Edinburgh. He joined the Geological Survey of Scotland, becoming its director in 1867. He was professor of geology at the Univ. of Edinburgh...

• Gilbert, Grove Karl 1843-1918, American geologist, b. Rochester, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Rochester, 1862. When the U.S. Geological Survey was created in the Dept. of the Interior in 1879 (to replace four surveys in the...

• Gould, Stephen Jay 1941-2002, American paleontologist and science writer, b. Queens, New York; grad. Antioch College (B.S., 1963), Columbia Univ. (Ph.D., 1967). With Niles Eldredge, Gould proposed (1972) the...

• Guettard, Jean-Étienne 1715-86, French geologist, botanist, and natural historian. He was curator of the natural history collection of the French scientist René de Réaumur (1741) and a member of the Faculty of Medicine...

• Hall, James 1811-98, American geologist and paleontologist, b. Hingham, Mass., grad. Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), 1832. An authority on stratigraphy and invertebrate...

• Hopkins, William 1793-1866, English geologist. Hopkins studied mathematics at Cambridge, and then supported himself as a private mathematics tutor. Many of England's best mathematicians and mathematical physicists...

• Hutton, James 1726-97, Scottish geologist, chemist, and naturalist. He was initially attracted to chemistry; he entered the legal profession at the Univ. of Edinburgh; turned to medicine, as it closely resembled...

• Karpinsky, Alexander Petrovich 1846-1936, Soviet geologist. From 1869 to 1885 he was at the Mining Institute, St. Petersburg as student and teacher. He was imperial director (1885-1916) of mining research and in 1886 was...

• Logan, Sir William Edmond 1798-1875, Canadian geologist. Educated in England, he managed (1831-38) coal mines and a copper smelter in Wales. In addition to making studies of clays underlying coal seams, he made extensive...

• Lyell, Sir Charles 1797-1875, British geologist. After studying and briefly practicing law, he spent most of his life in travel and in popularizing scientific ideas. He championed and won general acceptance of the...

• Maury, Matthew Fontaine 1806-73, American hydrographer and naval officer, b. near Fredericksburg, Va. Appointed a midshipman in 1825, he saw varied sea duty until a stagecoach accident (1839) made him permanently lame...

• Milne, John 1850-1913, British seismologist, b. Liverpool, educated at King's College and the Royal School of Mines. He worked as a mining engineer in Newfoundland and Labrador and served (1874) as a geologist...

• Murchison, Sir Roderick Impey 1792-1871, British geologist. He served in the Napoleonic Wars but after the peace turned his attention to science. In the 1830s he undertook the investigation of previously undifferentiated rock...

• Nordenskjöld, Nils Adolf Erik, Baron 1832-1901, Swedish geologist and arctic explorer, first to navigate the Northeast Passage, b. Finland. He served as geologist on several expeditions to Spitsbergen under Otto Torrell, the noted...

• Osborn, Henry Fairfield 1857-1935, American paleontologist and geologist, b. Fairfield, Conn. He was professor of comparative anatomy (1883-90) at Princeton, and professor of biology (1891-96) and of zoology (1896-1910)...

• Piccard, Auguste 1884-1962, Swiss physicist, b. Basel. He became a professor at the Univ. of Brussels in 1922. He and his twin brother Jean Felix (d. 1963) are known for their balloon ascents into the...

• Playfair, John 1748-1819, Scottish mathematician, physicist, and geologist. He was educated at St. Andrews and Edinburgh and taught first mathematics and then physics and astronomy at the latter university. His Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802) elucidated the methods and principles of his friend James Hutton and established uniformitarianism as the foundation of the new science of geology. He also published texts on geometry,...

• Powell, John Wesley 1834-1902, American geologist and ethnologist, b. Mt. Morris (now part of New York City). The family moved to Illinois, where Powell joined the Natural History Society, making collections and...

• Sedgwick, Adam 1785-1873, English geologist. He was a professor at Cambridge from 1818. His most important work was a study, made with R. I. Murchison, of the rock formation of Devonshire, which they named the...

• Smith, William 1769-1839, English geologist. Through direct observation as a canal-site surveyor, Smith made a systematic study of the geological strata of England and identified the fossils peculiar to each...

• Suess, Eduard 1831-1914, Austrian geologist, b. London. He was a professor (1857-1901) at the Univ. of Vienna and served for more than 20 years in the Austrian parliament. He was an authority on structural...

• Wegener, Alfred Lothar 1880-1930, German geologist, meteorologist, and Arctic explorer. Early in his life, he was on the staff of the aeronautical observatory at Lindenberg; was a professor of geophysics and meteorology...

• Werner, Abraham Gottlob 1750-1817, German geologist. In 1775 he became inspector and teacher in the mining academy at Freiberg, which through his efforts became one of the leading schools in Germany. In the last part of...

• Winthrop, John 1714-79, American scientist, b. Boston, Mass., grad. Harvard, 1732. Because of his study of earthquakes, he is sometimes called the founder of seismology. He made scientific observations of...