Subdivision
| • | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Claude Jean Allègre | | | Institution: | Institut Physique du Globe de Paris | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Claude Allègre was a professor of geochemistry at the University of Paris VI (Pierre and Marie Curie) since 1970, and became professor emeritus at the Institut Physique du Globe de Paris in 2009. He is a world leader in isotope geochemistry and is responsible for bringing this research area into flower in France. His research in a wide variety of isotopic problems with particular emphasis on earth structure and earth dynamics has been of continuing excitement to the scientific community throughout the world. He has been active in unifying the earth sciences community in Europe and is a founder of the European Union of Geosciences, for which he served as president. Dr. Allègre has also been active politically, having served as Minister of Education of France from 1997 to 2000. He has been a major leader in revitalizing science education and research in France. A brilliant and stimulating speaker with wide interests, Dr. Allègre is the author of three books on the development of geosciences for a general audience. His scientific accomplishments have been recognized with many medals and honors, including the Day Medal of the Geological Society of America and the V.M. Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society. In 1986 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him the Crafoord Prize for his work in isotope geochemistry with G.J. Wasserburg. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Leon Knopoff | | | Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles | | | Year Elected: | 1992 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1925 | | | Death Date: | January 20, 2011 | | | | | | |
A pioneer in the study of the scattering and diffraction of elastic waves in the earth, Leon Knopoff was Professor Emeritus of Physics and Geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles. He had been associated with UCLA since 1950 and since 1959 as professor of geophysics and physics and as a research musicologist. During a distinguished career that had also taken him to Miami University and the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Knopoff delineated the major differences in the structure of the earth's mantle beneath the continents and oceans and made significant contributions toward establishing relationships between the physics of fracture and clustering of earthquakes with special attention to the problems of earthquake prediction. For such accomplishments he was awarded the Emil Wiechert Medal of the German Geophysical Society (1978), the H.F. Reid Medal of the Seismological Society of America (1990) and the Royal Astronomical Society's Gold Medal (1979) and had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1949 and was also Docteur honoris causa, Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (2004) and Honorary Professor, Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing (2004). Leon Knopoff died at home in Sherman Oaks, California, on January 20, 2011, at the age of 85. | |
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