List of geologists
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 notable geologists. Many have received such awards as the Penrose Medal or the Wollaston Medal, or have been inducted into the National Academy of Sciences or the Royal Society.
Geoscience specialties represented include geochemistry, geophysics, structural geology, tectonics, geomorphology, glaciology, hydrology, hydrogeology, oceanography, mineralogy, petrology, crystallography, paleontology, paleobotany, paleoclimatology, palynology, petroleum geology, planetary geology, sedimentology, soil science, stratigraphy, and volcanology. In this list, the person listed is a geologist unless another specialty is noted. Only geologists with biographical articles in Wikipedia are listed here.
A
- Vladimir Abazarov, Soviet geologist, discoverer of Samotlor oil field
- Aziz Ab'Saber, Brazilian geomorphologist, member Brazilian Academy of Sciences
- Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich, German mineralogist
- Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American geologist, work on ice ages, glaciers, Lake Agassiz
- Georgius Agricola , German naturalist and 'Father of Mineralogy', author of De re metallica
- Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italian, Renaissance naturalist
- Claude Allègre, French geochemist, member of the French Academy of Sciences
- Fernando Flávio Marques de Almeida, Brazilian geologist, member Brazilian Academy of Sciences
- Walter Alvarez, American, co-author of the impact theory for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
- J. Willis Ambrose, first President of Geological Association of Canada
- Ernest Masson Anderson, Scottish structural geologist, influential in theory of faulting
- Roy Chapman Andrews, American explorer and naturalist; Mongolian dinosaurs
- Mary Anning, English pioneer fossil collector
- Adolphe d'Archiac, French paleontologist, member French Academy of Sciences
- Giovanni Arduino, Italian, first classification of geological time
- Richard Lee Armstrong, American/Canadian geochemist, won Logan Medal
- Rosemary Askin, first New Zealand woman to undertake her own research program in Antarctica in 1970.
- Tanya Atwater, California, American geophysicist, marine geologist, plate tectonics specialist
B
- Ralph Bagnold, British, studied deserts and the physics of sand
- Andrew Geddes Bain, South African, prepared first detailed geological map of South Africa
- Bashiru Ademola Raji, Nigerian geologist and pedogenesist
- Robert T. Bakker, American dinosaur paleontologist; author, The Dinosaur Heresies
- Octávio Barbosa, Brazilian field geologist and prospector; Gold Medal, Sociedade Brasileira de Geologia
- Thomas Barger, American, pioneered oil exploration in Saudi Arabia, later CEO of Aramco
- Anthony R. Barringer, Canadian/American geophysicist and inventor
- Charles Barrois, French geologist and paleontologist
- Florence Bascom, American, first woman geologist at the US Geological Survey
- Éliane Basse, French geologist and research director at the National Center for Scientific Research
- Abhijit Basu, Indian born American geologist
- Robert Bell, considered Canada's greatest explorer-scientist
- Walter A. Bell, Canadian paleobotanist and stratigrapher
- Helen Belyea, Canadian geologist best known for her research of the Devonian System.
- Reinout Willem van Bemmelen, Dutch, structural geology, economic geology and volcanology
- Etheldred Benett, English, pioneer paleontologist
- Pierre Berthier, French geologist, discovered the properties of bauxite
- Luca Bindi, Italian geologist, discovered the first natural quasicrystal icosahedrite
- Eliot Blackwelder, American field geologist, president of the Geological Society of America
- George Stanfield Blake, British geologist
- William Blake, President of the Geological Society of London 1815–1816
- William Phipps Blake, American geologist
- Selwyn G. Blaylock, Canadian chemist and mining executive with Cominco
- Stewart Blusson, Canadian, co-discoverer of Ekati Diamond Mine
- Alexei Alexeivich Bogdanov, Soviet geologist
- Bruce Bolt, American, pioneer engineering seismologist in California
- José Bonaparte, Argentinian paleontologist, discovered many South American dinosaurs
- William Borlase, Cornish natural historian, studied the minerals of Cornwall
- Norman L. Bowen, Canadian, pioneer experimental petrologist
- Scipione Breislak, Italian mineralogist and geologist, pioneer of volcanic gas collection
- J Harlen Bretz, American, discovered origin of channeled scablands
- David Brewster, Scottish physicist, studied the optical properties of minerals.
- Wallace S. Broecker, American paleoclimatologist and chemical oceanographer
- Robert Broom, South African palaeontologist, discovered australopithecine hominid fossils
- Barnum Brown, American, dinosaur hunter and self-taught paleontologist
- Christian Leopold von Buch, German geologist and paleontologist
- Mary Buckland, English, paleontologist, marine biologist and scientific illustrator
- William Buckland, English, wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur
- Judith Bunbury, British, geoarchaeologist
- B. Clark Burchfiel, MIT structural geologist, studied the Tibetan Plateau; member of National Academy of Sciences
- Perry Byerly, American geophysicist and seismologist
C
- Louis J. Cabri, Canadian, geologist and mineralogist, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
- Stephen E. Calvert, Canadian professor, geologist, oceanographer; awarded Logan Medal
- Colin Campbell, British petroleum geologist and Peak Oil theorist
- Neil Campbell, Canadian, Northwest Territories mineral exploration; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
- Samuel Warren Carey, Australian, continental drift proponent and later developed Expanding Earth hypothesis
- María Casanova de Chaudet, Italian-born Argentine geologist, director of Argentina's first petrographic laboratory
- Petr Černý, Czech/Canadian mineralogist, won Logan Medal; Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
- Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois, French, geologist and mineralogist
- George V. Chilingar, American, distinguished international petroleum geologist
- Václav Cílek, Czech geologist and science popularizer
- John J. Clague, Canadian, Quaternary and geological hazards expert
- Thomas H. Clark, Canadian, co-author of The Geological Evolution of North America
- William Branwhite Clarke, Australian, discovered gold in New South Wales, 1841
- Peter Clift, British marine geologist and monsoon researcher, best known for work in Asia
- Hans Cloos, prominent German structural geologist
- Lorence G. Collins,, American, petrologist, discoveries on metasomatism
- Simon Conway Morris, palaeontologist and writer, best known for study of Burgess Shale fossils
- William Conybeare, English, author of Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales
- Isabel Clifton Cookson, Australian paleobotanist and palynologist, namesake of genus Cooksonia
- Edward Drinker Cope, American, pioneer dinosaur paleontologist; Bone Wars competitor
- Charles Cotton, New Zealand, geologist and geomorphologist
- James Croll, Scottish scientist who developed the theory of climate change based on changes in the Earth's orbit
- Georges Cuvier, French, proponent of catastrophism
- Lindsay Collins, Australian marine geologist and sedimentologist
D
- G. Brent Dalrymple, United States, author The Age of the Earth, winner National Science Medal, 2005
- James Dwight Dana, American, author of System of Mineralogy
- Charles Darwin, British naturalist, author of On the Origin of Species, atoll formation
- George Mercer Dawson, Canadian, pioneer Yukon geologist, Fellow of the Royal Society
- John William Dawson, Canadian, pioneer Acadian geologist, Fellow of the Royal Society
- Henry De la Beche, English, first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain
- Duncan R. Derry, Canadian economic geologist, awarded Logan Medal
- Nicolas Desmarest, French, pioneer volcanologist
- Thomas Dibblee, American, geological mapper and pioneer of San Andreas Fault movement study
- William R. Dickinson, Arizona, American, plate tectonics, Colorado Plateau; Member of National Academy of Sciences
- Robert S. Dietz, American, seafloor spreading pioneer, awarded Penrose Medal
- Déodat de Dolomieu, French geologist
- Ljudmila Dolar Mantuani, Slovenian petrologist, first female professor of petrography in Yugoslavia
- Louis de Loczy, Hungarian-Brazilian geologist
- Ignacy Domeyko, Slavic-Chilean geologist and mineralogist, namesake of the mineral domeykite
- Robert John Wilson Douglas, Canadian petroleum geologist, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Aleksis Dreimanis, Latvian-Canadian award-winning Quaternary geologist, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
- Hugo Dummett, South African mineral-exploration geologist, co-discoverer of Ekati Diamond Mine
- Alexander du Toit, South African geologist, established correlations between Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and South Africa
- Clarence Edward Dutton, American, author of ''Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District''
E
- Edith Ebers, German geologist, glaciologist
- Heinz Ebert, German-Brazilian, geologist, petrologist; awarded gold medal, Sociedade Brasileira de Geologia
- Fanny Carter Edson, American petroleum geologist
- Niles Eldredge, American, paleontologist; theory of punctuated equilibrium
- Jean-Baptiste Élie de Beaumont, French, prepared first geological map of France
- Kay-Chrisitan Emeis, German geologist and academic
- W. G. Ernst, American, Stanford petrologist and geochemist, member of National Academy of Sciences
- Pentti Eskola, Finnish geologist and professor who created the concept of metamorphic facies
- Robert Etheridge, Junior, Australian paleontologist, longtime curator of the Australian Museum
- Raul-Yuri Ervier, Soviet geologist, an eminent organizer and head of wide-ranging geological explorations that discovered of the largest oil and gas fields in Western Siberia
- Maurice Ewing, American, pioneering geophysicist and oceanographer