BACKUS, George Edward

BACKUS, George Edward. American, b. 1930. Genres: Earth sciences, Physics. Career: Professor of Geophysics, University of California San Diego, at La Jolla, since 1962 (Associate Professor, 1960-62). Royal Society Arts Fellow, London, 1970-90; Co-Chairman, Intl. Working Group on Magnetic Field Satellites, since 1983; member, visiting cttee., Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, since 1987. Assistant Examiner, University of Chicago, 1949-50; Jr. Mathematician, Institute for Air Weapons Research, University of Chicago, 1951-54; Physicist, Project Matterhorn, Princeton University, New Jersey, 1957-58; Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1959-60. Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1962, and National Academy of Sciences, 1969; Foreign Associate, Acadaemie des Sciences, Institut de France, 1989. Publications: Self-Sustaining Dissipative Kinematic Fluid Dynamo, 1958; Rotational Splitting of the Free Oscillations of the Earth, 1961; Propagation of Short Waves on a Slowly Rotating Earth, 1962; Magnetic Anomalies over Oceanic Ridges, 1964; Possible Forms of Seismic Anistropy, 1962, 3rd ed., 1970; Potentials for Tangent Tensor Fields in Spheroids, 1966; (with F. Gilbert) Inversion of Seismic Normal Mode Data, 1966; Geomagnetic Data and Core Motions, 1967; (with F. Gilbert) Inversion of Earth Normal Mode Data, 1968; Inference from Inaccurate and Inadequate Data, 1971, 1972; Mathematical Representation of Seismic Sources, 1976; Computing Extrema of Multidimensional Polynomials, 1980; Relative Importance of Tectonic Plate-Driving Forces, 1981; Construction of Geomagnetic Field Models, 1982; Mantle Conductivity, 1983; Core Motion, 1986; Statistical Inference, 1989; (with C. Constable and R.L. Parker) Foundations of Geomagnetism, 1996.