Keith Runcorn

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Keith Runcorn
Born 19 November 1922
Southport, Lancashire
Died 5 December 1995
San Diego, Calif.
Nationality United Kingdom
Fields plate tectonics; paleomagnetism
Institutions Cambridge U. Newcastle U. U. of Alaska, Fairbanks
Alma mater Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge U.
Doctoral advisor Patrick Blackett
Doctoral students numerous: see body of article
Known for reestablishing viability of the theory of continental drift; discoveries in planetary magnetism
Influences Patrick Blackett
Influenced two generations of earth scientists
Notable awards numerous: see body of article

Stanley Keith Runcorn FRS[1] (19 November 1922 – 5 December 1995) was a British physicist whose paleomagnetic reconstruction of the relative motions of Europe and America revived the theory of continental drift and was a major contribution to plate tectonics.

Contents

Biography

He was born in Southport, Lancashire and graduated in engineering at Cambridge University in 1942.

After a period in radar research during the World War II, he joined the Physics Department at the University of Manchester where he did research on aspects of the Earth's magnetic field, taking his Ph.D. under Patrick Blackett in 1949[2]. This led to his interest in palaeomagnetism, the study of the magnetism of rocks, which he pursued first at the Geophysics Department at the University of Cambridge and later at Newcastle University, where he was appointed to the chair of Physics in 1956. At Newcastle Runcorn developed a strong research group in geophysics, and made substantial contributions to various fields, including convection in the Earth and Moon, the shape and magnetic fields of the Moon and planets, magnetohydrodynamics of the Earth's core, changes in the length of the day, polar wandering, continental drift and plate tectonics.

Runcorn received many honours, including Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1965, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Fleming medal of the American Geophysical Union. He was also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Science. He served as the Sydney Chapman Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences at the University of Alaska from 1989 to 1995. After his retirement in 1988 he continued to be active in various lines of research until his untimely death in San Diego in 1995.

Publications

See also

References

  1. ^ Collinson, D.W. (1 December 2002). "Stanley Keith Runcorn. 19 November 1922 - 5 December 1995". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 48 (0): 391–403. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2002.0023. 
  2. ^ Powell, T.E. and Harper, P. "Outline of the Career of Stanley Keith Runcorn." Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Stanley Keith Runcorn FRS (1922-1995), geophysicist [1], College Archives, Imperial College London, 2002

External links

Overview
Subfields
Physical Phenomena
Organizations