Dan McKenzie (geophysicist)
| Dan McKenzie | |
|---|---|
| Born |
21 February 1942 Cheltenham |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Geophysics |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge |
| Thesis | The shape of the earth (1967) |
| Doctoral advisor | Teddy Bullard |
| Influences | Walter Munk, Don L. Anderson |
| Notable awards |
Balzan Prize (1981) Wollaston Medal (1983) Japan Prize (1990) Royal Medal (1991) Copley Medal William Bowie Medal (2001) Crafoord Prize (2002) |
Dan Peter McKenzie CH FRS (born 21 February 1942) is a Professor of Geophysics at the University of Cambridge, and one-time head of the Bullard Laboratories of the Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. He wrote the first paper defining the principles of plate tectonics, and his early work on mantle convection created the modern discussion of planetary interiors.
Born in Cheltenham, the son of an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, he first attended Westminster Under School and later Westminster School, London.
McKenzie attended King's College, Cambridge where he read physics, obtaining a 2:1 in his final degree.
As a graduate student, he worked with Edward "Teddy" Bullard who suggested he work on the subject of thermodynamic variables. He was awarded a Research Fellowship at King's College at the beginning of his second year which enabled him to study anything he wanted. As such, he gave up doing what Teddy had suggested and became interested in how the interior of the earth convects, something completely speculative at that time. McKenzie taught himself fluid mechanics and then went to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, on the invitation of Freeman Gilbert and Walter Munk. After eight months he returned to Cambridge, submitting his PhD in 1966. He has since said that nothing in his early life as a scientist had such a profound effect on him as those eight months in California.
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