Edward Bullard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Edward "Teddy" Crisp Bullard (September 21, 1907 - April 3, 1980) was a geophysicist born into a wealthy brewing family in Norwich, England. In the 1930s he received his PhD as a nuclear physicist. He studied under Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory of University of Cambridge.

As it was the Depression and he was married he had to find a career to survive on. In the 1930s nuclear physics did not seem to be it so he switched to geophysics. He became one of the most important geophysicists of his day. He also did studies of the ocean floor even though he suffered from seasickness and could rarely take scientific trips on the ocean.

He was head of the National Physical Laboratory between 1948 and 1955.

He was important to dynamo theory, hence his most important work concerned the source of the Earth's magnetic field. He was often frustrated by efforts to increase geophysical interest at the University of Cambridge. In his career he won the Hughes Medal and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

After retiring from Cambridge he settled to a position in California where he died in 1980.