Vetlesen Prize
Encyclopedia
The Vetlesen Prize is awarded from Columbia University
's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
and the G. Unger Vetlesen
Foundation.
award for geophysics or geology. The prize is awarded for scientific achievement resulting in a clearer understanding of the Earth, its history, or its relations to the universe. The prize is awarded on average once every two years, if the jury selects at least one worthy candidate during this period.
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a campus in Palisades, N.Y., north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.- History :...
and the G. Unger Vetlesen
G. Unger Vetlesen
Georg Unger Vetlesen was a Norwegian shipbuilder and naturalized American philanthropist.-Background:Vetlesen was born in Oslo, Norway, the son of a well-known Norwegian surgeon. At age eleven, he became a crew member on a ship bound for Copenhagen...
Foundation.
Background
The Vetlesen Prize has been described as an attempt to establish an equivalent of a NobelNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
award for geophysics or geology. The prize is awarded for scientific achievement resulting in a clearer understanding of the Earth, its history, or its relations to the universe. The prize is awarded on average once every two years, if the jury selects at least one worthy candidate during this period.
History
G. Unger Vetlesen established the foundation which bears his name shortly before his death in 1955. In addition to the Vetlesen Prize, the foundation provides support in the Earth sciences for institutions of excellence. The prize is awarded for scientific achievement resulting in a clearer understanding of the Earth, its history, or its relations to the universe. The prize is awarded on average once every two years, if the jury selects at least one worthy candidate during this period.Past Recipients
- 2008 - Walter AlvarezWalter AlvarezWalter Alvarez is a professor in the Earth and Planetary Science department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most widely known for the theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, developed in collaboration with his father, Nobel Prize winning physicist Luis...
- 2004 - Sir Nicholas ShackletonNicholas ShackletonSir Nicholas John Shackleton FRS was a British geologist and climatologist who specialised in the Quaternary Period...
, United Kingdom - 2004 - W. Richard PeltierWilliam Richard PeltierWilliam Richard Peltier, Ph.D., D.Sc. , is a university professor of physics at the University of Toronto. He is director of the Centre for Global Change Science and principal investigator of the Polar Climate Stability Network...
, Canada - 2000 - W. Jason MorganW. Jason MorganWilliam Jason Morgan is an American geophysicist who has made seminal contributions to the theory of plate tectonics and geodynamics...
, USA - 2000 - Walter C. Pitman III, USA
- 2000 - Lynn R. Sykes, USA
- 1996 - Robert E. Dickinson, USA
- 1996 - John ImbrieJohn ImbrieJohn Imbrie is an American paleoceanographer best known for his work on the theory of ice ages.After serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy during World War II, Imbrie earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University. He then went on to receive a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1951...
, USA - 1993 - Walter MunkWalter MunkWalter Heinrich Munk is an American physical oceanographer. He is professor of geophysics emeritus and holds the Secretary of the Navy/Chief of Naval Operations Oceanography Chair at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.-Early life:Born in 1917 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary,...
, USA - 1987 - Wallace S. BroeckerWallace S. BroeckerWallace Smith Broecker is the Newberry Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University and a scientist at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory...
, USA - 1987 - Harmon CraigHarmon CraigHarmon Craig was an American geochemist.Craig studied geology and chemistry at the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. under Nobel Laureate Harold Urey with a thesis on carbon isotope geochemistry in 1951. He remained at the University of Chicago as a research associate at the Enrico...
, USA - 1981 - Marion King Hubbert, USA
- 1978 - J. Tuzo Wilson, Canada
- 1974 - Chaim Leib PekerisChaim L. PekerisChaim Leib Pekeris was an Israeli-American physicist and mathematician. He made notable contributions to geophysics and the spectral theory of many-electron atoms, in particular the Helium atom. He was also one of the designers of the first computer in Israel, WEIZAC.-Biography:Pekeris was bon in...
, Israel - 1973 - William A. Fowler, USA
- 1970 - Allan V. CoxAllan V. CoxAllan Verne Cox was an American geophysicist. His work on dating geomagnetic reversals, with Richard Doell and Brent Dalrymple, made a major contribution to the theory of plate tectonics. Allan Cox won numerous awards, including the prestigious Vetlesen Prize, and was the president of the American...
, USA - 1970 - Richard R. DoellRichard DoellRichard Doell was a distinguished American scientist known for developing the time scale for geomagnetic reversals with Allan V. Cox and Brent Dalrymple. This work was a major step in the development of plate tectonics...
, USA - 1970 - S. Keith RuncornKeith RuncornStanley Keith Runcorn FRS 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.-Biography:He was born in Southport, Lancashire and graduated in engineering...
, United Kingdom - 1968 - Francis BirchFrancis Birch (geophysicist)Albert Francis Birch was an American geophysicist best known for his experimental work on the properties of Earth-forming minerals at high pressure and temperature, in 1952 he published a well-known paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research ,where he demonstrated that the mantle is chiefly...
, USA - 1968 - Sir Edward BullardEdward BullardSir Edward "Teddy" Crisp Bullard FRS was a geophysicist who is considered, along with Maurice Ewing, to have founded the discipline of marine geophysics...
, United Kingdom - 1966 - Jan Hendrik Oort, Netherlands
- 1964 - Pentti Eskola, Finland
- 1964 - Arthur HolmesArthur HolmesArthur Holmes was a British geologist. As a child he lived in Low Fell, Gateshead and attended the Gateshead Higher Grade School .-Age of the earth:...
, United Kingdom - 1962 - Sir Harold JeffreysHarold JeffreysSir Harold Jeffreys, FRS was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His seminal book Theory of Probability, which first appeared in 1939, played an important role in the revival of the Bayesian view of probability.-Biography:Jeffreys was born in Fatfield, Washington, County...
, United Kingdom - 1962 - Felix Andries Vening MeineszFelix Andries Vening MeineszFelix Andries Vening Meinesz was a Dutch geophysicist and geodesist. He is known for his invention of a precise method for measuring gravity. Thanks to his invention, it became possible to measure gravity at sea, which led him to the discovery of gravity anomalies above the ocean floor...
, Netherlands - 1960 - W. Maurice EwingMaurice EwingWilliam Maurice "Doc" Ewing was an American geophysicist and oceanographer.Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basins, ocean bottom photography, submarine sound transmission , deep sea coring of the ocean...
, USA