Anthony Watts (geologist)

Tony Watts

Anthony Brian Watts in 2014, portrait via the Royal Society
Born Anthony Brian Watts
24 July 1945[1]
Fields
Institutions
Alma mater
Thesis Geophysical investigations in the Faeroes to Scotland region, Northeast Atlantic (1970)
Doctoral advisor Martin Bott[3]
Notable awards

Website

Anthony Brian Watts FRS[1][4] is a British marine geologist and geophysicist and Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences, at the University of Oxford.[5]

Education

Watts was born in Essex and educated at Sidcot School, a Quaker school in Somerset, and University College, London where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology and Physics in 1967. He also earned a PhD in Marine Geophysics from University of Durham in 1970 supervised by Martin Bott[3] and a Doctor of Science from the University of Oxford in 2003.

Career

Watts has taught at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University[1] and the University of Oxford and has published more than 200 articles in scientific journals[2][6] and a book on Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphere.[7]

Research

According to Watts:

“ The main focus of my research has been to use geological and geophysical techniques to study the Earth's crust and upper mantle beneath the world's ocean basins and their margins. ... By comparing observations of the structure of oceanic islands and passive margins to predictions of simple thermal and mechanical models, constraints have been placed on the response of the oceanic crust and upper mantle to long-term (i.e. > 106 years) geological loads. Results show that the oceanic crust and upper mantle is capable of supporting volcanic and sediment loads for long periods of geological time by flexing over broad regions of the ocean floor. A major part of my research has been to quantitatively understand the phenomena of flexure, how it depends on load and plate age, and how it contributes to the gravity and geoid, the crustal structure and, the stratigraphic patterns that develop in sedimentary basins. Current research is focused on better understanding the role of flexure in the geological development of continental margin basins, the growth and decay of oceanic islands, the structural styles that develop in mountain belts, and landscape evolution.[8] ”

Awards and honours

Watts has received a number of awards including the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London,[9] the George P. Woollard Award of the Geological Society of America[10] and the Arthur Holmes Medal of the European Geosciences Union.[11] Watts was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014, his nomination reads:

“ Professor Watts is a marine geologist and geophysicist who has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the structure and evolution of the world’s ocean basins and their margins. His science is distinguished by the application of the principles and methods of geophysics to the solution of major geological problems. These include isostasy, lithospheric flexure, the origin of deep-sea trenches and mountains, sedimentary basin formation, the deep structure of continental margins, oceanic islands seamounts and mid-ocean ridges and the relative roles of plate processes such as flexure and mantle dynamics in contributing to Earth’s gravity and topography field.[4] ”

Watts is also an Honorary Member of the European Geosciences Union and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America and an elected Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE). He is the 2015 Harold Jeffreys Lecturer of the Royal Astronomical Society.[12]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 WATTS, Prof. Anthony Brian. Who's Who 2014 (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. (subscription required)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Anthony Watts's publications indexed by Google Scholar, a free service provided by Google
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Watts, Anthony Brian (1970). Geophysical investigations in the Faeroes to Scotland region, Northeast Atlantic (PhD thesis). University of Durham.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Professor Anthony Watts FRS". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2014-09-09.
  5. ↑ "A.B.Watts - Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics, University of Oxford". Retrieved 2014-09-03.
  6. ↑ Anthony Watts's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database, a service provided by Elsevier.
  7. ↑ Watts, Anthony Brian (2001). Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphere. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2277/0521006007. ISBN 9780521006002.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "Murchison Medal". Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "George P. Woollard Award - citation". Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Arthur Holmes Medal - citation". Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  12. ↑ "Harold Jeffreys Lecturer - citation". Retrieved 12 April 2015.