List of geophysicists
This is a list of geophysicists, people who made notable contributions to geophysics, whether or not geophysics was their primary field. These include historical figures who laid the foundations for the field of geophysics. More recently, some of the top awards for geophysicists are the Vetlesen Prize ; the William Bowie Medal ; the Maurice Ewing Medal ; and the Crafoord Prize for geosciences. Some geophysicists have also won more general prizes such as the Nobel Prize and the Kyoto Prize.
A
- Leason Adams – high pressure mineral physics
- Thomas J Ahrens – experimental methods for modeling hypervelocity impacts and materials in the Earth's core and mantle
- Hannes Alfvén – Alfvén waves, magnetohydrodynamics of magnetosphere; Nobel Prize in Physics
- Giuseppina Aliverti – geophysicist remembered for developing the Aliverti-Lovera method of measuring the radioactivity of water
- Keiiti Aki – seismology; William Bowie Medal
- Claude Allègre Crafoord Prize
- Don L. Anderson – seismology and Earth's interior ; Crafoord Prize
- Nigel Anstey – exploration geophysicist; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Tanya Atwater – plate tectonic history of North America
B
- George Edward Backus – geophysical mathematician, development of geophysical inverse methods; contributions to dynamo theory
- Milo Backus – exploration geophysicist; practical 3D exploration; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Peter Barlow – experimental and observational studies of terrestrial magnetism, Copley Medal
- Anthony R. Barringer – developed the INPUT airborne electromagnetic system for detecting ores; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Julius Bartels – contributed to physics of the Sun and Moon; geomagnetism, meteorology and the physics of the ionosphere
- Louis Bauer – mapped the Earth's magnetic field
- Hugo Benioff – discovered link between deep earthquakes and subduction zones
- Lloyd Berkner – studied the ionosphere
- Henry Bryant Bigelow – awarded the William Bowie Medal
- Francis Birch – developed theoretical and experimental models for the Earth's interior; Vetlesen Prize
- Kristian Birkeland – first realized that energetic electrons cause the aurora; nominated 7 times for Nobel Prize
- Abu Rayhan Biruni – made accurate measure of circumference of Earth and other contributions to geodesy
- Jacob Bjerknes – awarded the William Bowie Medal
- Patrick Blackett – paleomagnetism, continental drift, Nobel Prize
- Martin Bott – magnetic anomalies, gravity anomalies
- Pierre Bouguer – geodesy; the Bouguer gravity anomaly
- William Bowie – geodesy and isostasy
- Wallace Smith Broecker – climate, ocean circulation; Crafoord Prize, Vetlesen Prize
- Bernard Brunhes – paleomagnetism; discovered the first geomagnetic reversal
- Walter Hermann Bucher – awarded the William Bowie Medal
- Edward Bullard – developed theory of geodynamo, pioneered use of seismology to study the sea floor, and used seafloor bathymetry to test continental drift
- Keith Edward Bullen – seismological interpretation of the deep structure of the Earth's mantle and core
- Victor Robertovich Bursian – pioneer in theory of Electrical resistivity tomography
C
- Henry Cavendish – made first estimate of the mass of the Earth
- Anny Cazenave – geodesy and satellite altimetry; awarded William Bowie Medal
- Vlastislav Cervený – exploration geophysicist; seismic ray theory; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Sydney Chapman – predicted magnetosphere; developed theories for effect of solar wind on geomagnetic storms and aurorae
- Jule Gregory Charney – dynamical meteorology; awarded William Bowie Medal
- Jon Claerbout – exploration geophysics seismic data processing and imaging; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Alexis Clairaut – proved Clairaut's theorem and calculated the ellipticity of the Earth
- William Compston – developed the Sensitive High Resolution Ion Micro Probe for isotopic analyses of geological samples
- Vincent Courtillot – paleomagnetist; promoted theory that mass extinctions are caused by massive volcanic episodes
- Thomas Cowling – solar magnetic field, dynamo theory
- Allan V. Cox – created a timeline for geomagnetic reversals and was a pioneer in plate tectonics; Vetlesen Prize
- Albert P. Crary – Arctic and Antarctic exploration, seismology
D
- Reginald Aldworth Daly – awarded the William Bowie Medal
- George Howard Darwin – analyzed tides and tidal friction; first to develop mathematical theory for evolution of the Sun–Earth–Moon system
- Arthur Louis Day – mineral physics and volcanology
- Everette Lee DeGolyer – exploration geophysics in the petroleum industry
- Robert S. Dietz – proposed – theory of seafloor spreading; discovered several impact craters including Sudbury Basin
- Hewitt Dix – exploration geophysics; creator of the Dix equation for reflection velocity, recipient of the Maurice Ewing Medal
- Richard Doell – created a timeline for geomagnetic reversals and was a pioneer in plate tectonics; Vetlesen Prize
- James Dooge – hydrology
- Erich von Drygalski – polar explorer and geophysicist
- Adam Dziewonski – large-scale structure of Earth's interior and nature of earthquakes; Crafoord Prize
E
- Carl Eckart – underwater acoustics; awarded William Bowie Medal
- Walter M. Elsasser – first mathematical dynamo theory for Earth's outer core
- Loránd Eötvös – developed a highly accurate torsion balance for gravimetry
- Eratosthenes – measured circumference of the Earth and the tilt of its axis
- Maurice Ewing – broad contributions to seafloor seismology; predicted and discovered the SOFAR channel
F
- Gerhard Fanselau – geomagnetic observations
- Joseph Charles Farman – co-discoverer of the ozone hole
- Yevgeny Konstantinovich Fyodorov – pioneer in Arctic geophysical survey
- Osmond Fisher – continental drift
- John Adam Fleming – magnetosphere and atmospheric electricity
- James David Forbes – built the first seismometer
- Scott Forbush – solar-terrestrial interactions and the Forbush decrease
- Efi Foufoula-Georgiou – wavelet analysis
- Gillian Foulger – plate theory
- Robert Were Fox the Younger – discovered the geothermal gradient; constructed a dip circle for use at sea
- Benjamin Franklin – established that lightning is electrical
G
- Carl Friedrich Gauss – first mathematical representation of Earth's magnetic field; geodetic surveys
- Henry Gellibrand – discovered that magnetic declination varies with time
- James Freeman Gilbert – development of geophysical inverse theory; network of seismometers to study Earth's free oscillation
- William Gilbert – early magnetic experiments; first to argue that the Earth itself is magnetic
- George Graham – discovery of the diurnal variation of the Earth's magnetic field; related Aurora borealis to magnetic field variations
- Cecil H. Green – exploration geophysics geophysical entrepreneur and philanthropist; Maurice Ewing Medal
- Harsh Gupta – methodology for discriminating normal earthquakes from reservoir-induced ones, study on the genesis of stable continental region earthquakes; Padma Shri, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize and Waldo E. Smith Award
- Beno Gutenberg – probability distribution of earthquake energies and relation of energy to magnitude
H
- Edmond Halley – first chart of Earth's magnetic field
- Christopher Hansteen – produced the first charts of the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field
- Harry Hammond Hess – seafloor gravity anomalies and theory of seafloor spreading
- Georg Hartmann – kept early records of magnetic declination
- Bernhard Haurwitz – meteorology
- Veikko Aleksanteri Heiskanen – studies of the global geoid
- Raymond Hide
- Arthur Holmes – performed first uranium–lead dating
- M. King Hubbert – correct statement of Darcy's law and mathematical demonstration that rock undergoes plastic deformation; Vetlesen Prize
- Alexander von Humboldt – global network of geomagnetic observatories
- Rosemary Hutton – geophysicist and pioneer of magnetotellurics
I
- Akitsune Imamura – seismologist
- Ted Irving – early paleomagnetic evidence for continental drift
- Ahmet Mete Işıkara – earthquake scientist
J
- James A. Jackson – seismologist; contributed to rebuttal of the 'jelly sandwich' model of the crust
- John Arthur “Jack” Jacobs - primary area of research was geomagnetism
- Harold Jeffreys – deduced that the Earth's outer core is molten; contributed to mathematical geophysics; Vetlesen Prize
- Lucy Jones – earthquake science and safety
- Thomas H. Jordan – seismic contributions to plate tectonics
K
- Hiroo Kanamori – fundamental contributions to the physics of earthquakes; Kyoto Prize
- Louise H. Kellogg – modeling of the Earth's mantle
- William Thomson, Lord Kelvin – influential estimate of the age of the Earth, ultimately proved incorrect
- Alexander A. Kaufman – major contributions to time-domain electromagnetic methods and through-casing resistivity measurements.
L
- Kurt Lambeck – changed understanding of the ways post-glacial rebound affects ocean levels; awarded Wollaston Medal and Balzan Prize
- Johann von Lamont – surveys of the Earth's magnetic field
- Louis J. Lanzerotti – magnetosphere and ionosphere; awarded William Bowie Medal
- Joseph Larmor – proton precession, dynamo theory
- Inge Lehmann – seismologist who discovered the Lehmann discontinuity and argued for a solid inner core
- Xavier Le Pichon – constructed history of plate motions
- Royden Charles Lilwall - Geophysicist / seismologist locating the epicenter of earthquakes
- Humphrey Lloyd – observational geomagnetism
- Cinna Lomnitz – creator of "Lomnitz Law", founder of Mexico's first seismic network and editor of Geofísica Internacional
- Andrew Long – developed widely used instruments for marine exploration for oil and gas; Honorary Lecturer for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
- Augustus Edward Hough Love – developed theory of Love waves
- Bruce P. Luyendyk – marine geophysics
- Leon Thomsen - Seismic anisotropy Thomsen parameters