List of geologists

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A geologist is a contributor to the science of geology. Geologists are also known as earth scientists or geoscientists.

The following is a list of famous or notable geologists. Many have received such awards as the Penrose Medal, the Wollaston Medal, or have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences or the Royal Society.

Geoscience specialties represented here include geochemistry, geophysics, geomorphology, glaciology, hydrology, oceanography, mineralogy, petrology, crystallography, paleontology, paleobotany, paleoclimatology, sedimentology, soil science, stratigraphy, and volcanology. In this list, the person listed is a geologist unless another specialty is noted.

Contents: Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

[edit] A

Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich (1806 - 1886), German mineralogist
Louis Agassiz (1807 - 1873), Swiss-American geologist, work on ice ages, glaciers, Lake Agassiz
Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer) (1494 - 1555), German naturalist, author of De re metallica
Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522 - 1605), Italy, Renaissance naturalist
Claude Allègre (b. 1937), prize-winning French geochemist
Walter Alvarez (b. 1940), USA, author of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
Roy Chapman Andrews (1884-1960), American explorer and naturalist; Mongolian dinosaurs
Mary Anning (1799 - 1847), England, pioneer fossil collector
Adolphe d'Archiac (1802 - 1868), prize-winning French paleontologist
Giovanni Arduino (1714 - 1795), Italian, first classification of geological time
Richard Lee Armstrong (1937-1991), American/Canadian geochemist
Tanya Atwater, California, USA geophysicist, marine geologist, plate tectonics specialist

[edit] B

Robert T. Bakker (b. 1945), American dinosaur paleontologist; author, The Dinosaur Heresies
Anthony R. Barringer (b. 1925), Canadian/American geophysicist and inventor
Florence Bascom (1862-1945), USA, first woman geologist at the US Geological Survey
Robert Bell, (1841 - 1917), considered Canada’s greatest explorer-scientist
Walter A. Bell (1889 - 1969), Canadian paleobotanist and stratigrapher
Etheldred Benett, (1776 - 1845), England, pioneer paleontologist
Pierre Berthier (1782 - 1861), French geologist, discovered the properties of bauxite
Stewart Blusson (born 1939), Canada, co-discoverer of Ekati Diamond Mine
Bruce Bolt (1930 - 2005), USA (born Australia), pioneer engineering seismologist in California
Norman L. Bowen (1887 - 1956), Canada, pioneer experimental petrologist
J. Harlen Bretz (1882 - 1981), USA, discovered origin of channeled scablands
Wallace S. Broecker (born 1931), American paleoclimatologist and chemical oceanographer
Barnum Brown (1873-1963), USA, famous dinosaur hunter and self-taught paleontologist
William Buckland (1784 - 1856), England, wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur
B. Clark Burchfiel, USA, MIT structural geologist, currently studying Tibetan plateau

[edit] C

Stephen E. Calvert, Canadian professor, geologist, oceanographer
Colin Campbell (born 1931), British petroleum geologist and Peak Oil theorist
Neil Campbell (1914-1978), Canada, Northwest Territories mineral exploration
Petr Cerny, Czech/Canadian mineralogist
Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois (1820 - 1886), France, geologist and mineralogist
George V. Chilingar, USA, distinguished international petroleum geologist
Thomas H. Clark (1893 - 1996), Canada, co-author of The Geological Evolution of North America (1960)
William Branwhite Clarke (1798 - 1878), Australia (born England), discovered gold in New South Wales, 1841
Hans Cloos (1885 - 1951), prominent German structural geologist
William Conybeare (1787 - 1857), England, author of Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales (1822)
Isabel Clifton Cookson (1893 - 1973), prize-winning Australian paleobotanist and palynologist
Edward Drinker Cope (1840 - 1897), USA, pioneer dinosaur paleontologist; Bone Wars competitor
Charles Cotton (1885 - 1970), New Zealand, geologist and geomorphologist
Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832), France, proponent of catastrophism

[edit] D

James Dwight Dana (1813 - 1895), USA, author of System of Mineralogy (1837)
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882), British naturalist, author of On the Origin of Species
George Mercer Dawson (1849 - 1901), Canada, pioneer Yukon geologist
John William Dawson (1820 - 1899), Canada, pioneer Acadian geologist
Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt (1920 - 1998), Belgium geologist, discoverer of the Ishango bone in 1960
Henry De la Beche (1796 - 1855), England, first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
Duncan R. Derry (1906 – 1987), Canadian economic geologist
Nicolas Desmarest (1725 - 1815), France, pioneer volcanologist
William R. Dickinson (b. 1930), Arizona, USA, plate tectonics, Colorado Plateau
Robert S. Dietz (1914 - 1995), USA, seafloor spreading pioneer
Robert John Wilson Douglas (1920 – 1979), Canadian petroleum geologist
Aleksis Dreimanis (b. 1914), Latvia & Canada, award-winning Quaternary geologist
Clarence Edward Dutton (1841 - 1912), USA, author of Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District

[edit] E

Niles Eldredge (b.1943), American paleontologist; theory of punctuated equilibrium
Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont (1798 - 1874), France, prepared first geological map of France
W. G. Ernst (b. 1931), USA, Stanford petrologist and geochemist
Robert Etheridge, Junior (1847 - 1920), Australian (born England) paleontologist, longtime curator of the Australian Museum
Maurice Ewing (1906 - 1974), USA, pioneering geophysicist and oceanographer

[edit] F

Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond (1741 - 1819), France, pioneer volcanologist
Mikhail A. Fedonkin (b. 1946), awarding winning Russian paleontologist
Walter Frederick Ferrier (1865 - 1950), Canada, mineral collector
Chuck Fipke, Canada, co-discoverer of Ekati Diamond Mine
Richard Fortey (b. 1946), England, trilobite paleontologist, author
Yves O. Fortier (b. 1914), Canada, High Arctic explorer
William Fyfe (b. 1927, New Zealand), Canada, geochemist

[edit] G

Hubert Gabrielse, prize-winning Canadian geologist
Robert Garrels (1916 - 1988), American geochemist, revolutionized aqueous geochemistry
Grove Karl Gilbert (1843 - 1918), USA, influential Western geologist
James E. Gill (1901 – 1980), Canada, McGill University professor, explorer
Victor Goldschmidt (1888 - 1947), Norway (born Switzerland), a founder of modern geochemistry
John Gosse, Canadian geomorphologist
Stephen Jay Gould (1941 - 2002), American paleontologist and writer
L.C. Graton (1880 - 1970), USA, Harvard economic geologist
Alexander Henry Green (1832 - 1896), England, surveyed Derbyshire and Yorkshire
Henry C. Gunning (1901 - 1991), Canada (born Northern Ireland), British Columbia geologist
Paul Güssfeldt (1840 - 1920) German geologist, mountaineer and explorer.

[edit] H

Julius von Haast (1824 - 1887), New Zealand (born Germany), founded Canterbury Museum
Sir James Hall (1761 - 1832), Scottish geologist, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
James Hall (1811-1898), USA, influential geologist and paleontologist
W. Brian Harland (1917 - 2003), England, polar geologist
Geoffrey Hattersley-Smith (b. 1923), England and Canada, polar geologist
James Edwin Hawley (1897 - 1965), Canada, studied mineralogy of ore deposits
Frank Hawthorne (b. 1968), Canadian mineralogist and crystallographer
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden (1829 - 1887), USA, pioneer Western geologist
Sue Hendrickson (b.1949), American paleontologist; discoverer of "Sue", the largest Tyrannosaurus rex ever found
Harry Hess (1906 - 1969), USA geologist and oceanographer
Pattillo Higgins (1863 - 1955), USA, known as the "Prophet of Spindletop"
Eugene W. Hilgard (1833 - 1916), USA (born Germany), soil scientist
Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Canada (born France), Quaternary geologist
Paul F. Hoffman, USA & Canada, Snowball Earth theorist
Arthur Holmes (1890 - 1965), England, author of Principles of Physical Geology
Jack Horner (b. 1946), famous American dinosaur paleontologist; MacArthur Fellowship winner
Kenneth J. Hsu (b. 1929), USA (born China), author of The Mediterranean was a Desert
M. King Hubbert (1903 - 1989), USA, originator of "Peak Oil" theory
James Hutton (1726 - 1797), Scottish geologist, father of modern geology

[edit] I

Edward A. Irving (b. 1927), Canadian, used paleomagnetism to support continental drift theory

[edit] J

James A. Jensen (1911-1998), USA, distinguished dinosaur paleontologist and sculptor

[edit] K

Michael John Keen (1935 - 1991), Canada, professor and marine geoscientist
Clarence King (1893 - 1971), USA, first director of the U.S. Geological Survey
Andrew H. Knoll, (b. 1951), USA, Harvard geologist and paleontologist
Danie G. Krige, South African mining engineer, inventor of kriging
Thomas Edvard Krogh, Canada, geochronologist and a curator for the Royal Ontario Museum
William C. Krumbein, (1902 - 1979), USA, sedimentologist
Nikolai Kudryavtsev (1893 - 1971), Russian petroleum geologist

[edit] L

Andrew Lawson (1861 - 1952), USA (born Scotland), named San Andreas fault
Joseph LeConte (1823 - 1901), USA, first professor of geology, University of California
Robert Legget (1904 - 1994), Canadian non-fiction writer, civil engineer, pedologist
Inge Lehmann (1888 - 1993), Danish seismologist, discovered Lehmann discontinuity
Luna Leopold (1915 - 2006), eminent American hydrologist
Xavier Le Pichon (b. 1937), French plate tectonics geophysicist
Waldemar Lindgren (1860 - 1939), distinguished Swedish-American economic geologist
Martin Lister (c.1638 - 1712), England, pioneer geologist
William Edmond Logan (1798 - 1875), Canada, founded Geological Survey of Canada
Fred Longstaffe, Canada, Provost of University of Western Ontario
Sir Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875), Scottish geologist, popularized principle of uniformitarianism

[edit] M

William Maclure (1763 - 1840), published first geologic map of USA (1809)
J. Ross Mackay (b. 1915), Canadian permafrost geologist
Othniel Charles Marsh, (1831 - 1899), USA, pioneer dinosaur paleontologist; Bone Wars competitor
Sir Douglas Mawson (1882 - 1958), Australian Antarctic explorer
Sir Frederick McCoy (1817? - 1899), British and Australian palaeontologist and museum director
Dan McKenzie (b. 1942), UK geophysicist, plate tectonics pioneer
Digby McLaren (1919 – 2004), Canadian paleontologist
Giuseppe Mercalli (1850 - 1914), Italian seismologist and volcanologist, developed Mercalli scale for measuring earthquakes
Hans Merensky (1871 - 1952), South African economic geologist, discovered major diamond, platinum, chrome and copper deposits, including the Merensky Reef
John C. Merriam (1869 - 1945), USA, vertebrate paleontologist, studied fossils from La Brea Tar Pits
Waman Bapuji Metre (1906 - 1970), India, petroleum geologist
Gerard V. Middleton (b. 1931), Canada, sedimentologist
Andrija Mohorovičić (1857 - 1936), Croatian meteorologist and seismologist, discovered Mohorovicic Discontinuity
Friedrich Mohs (1773 - 1839), Germany, devised Mohs' scale of mineral hardness
James Monger, Canadian Cordillera geologist
W. Jason Morgan (b. 1935), American plate tectonics pioneer
Eric W. Mountjoy, Canadian sedimentologist and petrologist
Roderick Murchison (1792 - 1871), Scotland, author of The Silurian System (1839)
Emiliano Mutti (b. 1933), Italian petroleum geologist

[edit] N

Anthony J. Naldrett, Canadian (born England) nickel ore geologist
E.R. Ward Neale (b. 1923), Atlantic Canada geologist
John Strong Newberry (1822 - 1892), USA, pioneer Western geologist and explorer
Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld (1792 – 1866), Finland and Russia, mineralogist

[edit] O

John Ostrom (1928 - 2005), American dinosaur paleontologist, discovered warm-blooded Deinonychus

[edit] P

Joseph Pardee (1871 - 1960), USA, channeled scablands
Clair Cameron Patterson (1922 - 1995), USA, geochemist, fought lead poisoning
R.A.F. Penrose, Jr. (1863 - 1931), USA, mining geologist, Penrose Medal
John Phillips (1800 - 1874), Yorkshire geologist
Vladimir Porfiriev (1899 - 1982), Russian petroleum geologist
John Wesley Powell (1834 - 1902), USA, ex-soldier who mapped the Colorado River, second director of the USGS.
Raymond A. Price (b. 1933) Canadian structural and tectonic geologist
Raphael Pumpelly (1837 - 1923), USA, geologist and explorer

[edit] R

Frederick Leslie Ransome (1868 - 1935), USA (born England), prolific USGS economic geologist
David M. Raup, USA, mass-extinction paleontologist; author of Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck?
Charles Richter (1900 - 1985), American seismologist, devised Richter magnitude scale for earthquakes
Ferdinand Baron Von Richthofen (1833 - 1905), German geologist and geographer