Maurice Ewing
| Maurice Ewing | |
|---|---|
Maurice Ewing in 1948. Photo courtesy Columbia University
|
|
| Born | William Maurice Ewing May 12, 1906 Lockney, Texas |
| Died | May 4, 1974 (aged 67) Galveston, Texas |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields |
geophysics underwater acoustics oceanography |
| Institutions |
Columbia University University of Texas |
| Alma mater | Rice University |
| Doctoral advisor | L Don Leet |
| Influenced |
J. Lamar Worzel Frank Press Jack Nafe Jack Oliver |
| Notable awards | Alexander Agassiz Medal (1954) William Bowie Medal (1957) Cullum Geographical Medal (1961) John J. Carty Award (1963) Wollaston Medal (1969) National Medal of Science (1973) Vetlesen Prize (1960) Fellow of the Royal Society (1972) Penrose Medal (1974) |
William Maurice "Doc" Ewing (May 12, 1906 – May 4, 1974) 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 (including the SOFAR channel), deep sea coring of the ocean bottom, theory and observation of earthquake surface waves, fluidity of the Earth's core, generation and propagation of microseisms, submarine explosion seismology, marine gravity surveys, bathymetry and sedimentation, natural radioactivity of ocean waters and sediments, study of abyssal plains and submarine canyons.
He was born in Lockney, Texas, where he was the eldest child of a large farm family. He won a scholarship to attend Rice University, earning a B.A. with honors in 1926. He completed his graduate studies at the same institution, earning an M.A. in 1927 and being awarded his Ph.D. in 1931. In 1928 he was married to Avarilla Hildenbrand, and the couple had a son.
He moved to Columbia University, becoming a professor of geology in 1947. In 1959 he was named the Higgins Professor of Geology at Columbia. Dr. Ewing (often simply called 'Doc' by those who worked with him) was the founder (established in 1949) and first director of Lamont Geological Observatory (now known as Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) in Palisades, New York) where he worked with J. Lamar Worzel (gravity specialist), Dr. Frank Press (seismologist), Jack Nafe, Jack Oliver, and geologists and oceanographic cartographers Dr. Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp.
...
Wikipedia