Preston Cloud
| Preston Cloud | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr September 26, 1912 West Upton, Massachusetts, USA |
| Died | January 16, 1991 (aged 78) Santa Barbara, California |
| Residence | US |
| Citizenship | American |
| Nationality | US |
| Fields | Biogeology, Physical cosmology |
| Institutions | Harvard University, University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Alma mater |
George Washington University (BSc) Yale University (PhD) |
| Doctoral advisor | C. O. Dunbar |
| Known for |
Geologic time scale Origin of life Cambrian explosion |
| Notable awards |
Paleontological Society Medal (1971) Lucius Wilbur Cross Medal (1973) Penrose Medal (1976) Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal (1977) |
Preston Ercelle Cloud, Jr. (September 26, 1912 – January 16, 1991) was an eminent American earth scientist, biogeologist, cosmologist, and paleontologist. He served in the United States Navy (in which he was a bantamweight boxing champion), and led several field explorations of the U.S. Geological Survey. In academia, he was member of faculty of Harvard University, University of Minnesota, University of California, Los Angeles, and lastly University of California, Santa Barbara. He was best known for his work on the geologic time scale and the origin of life on Earth, and as a pioneering ecologist and environmentalist. He was credited with coining the term "biogeology." His works on the significance of Cambrian fossils in the 1940s led to the development of the concept "Cambrian explosion," for which he coined the phrase "eruptive evolution."
Cloud was born in West Upton, Massachusetts. He was the third of seven children of Preston Ercelle and Pauline L. (née Wiedemann) Cloud. His father was an engineer-draftsman, and his mother, a genealogist. He grew up in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania where he developed a love for the outdoors. He enjoyed Scouting and was an Eagle Scout. Upon graduating from Waynesboro High School in 1929, Cloud spent three years in the United States Navy (1930–1933) where he excelled at boxing. He was the bantamweight champion of the Pacific Fleet Scouting Force. Due to the Great Depression, he could not join university, and attended night school at George Washington University, so that he could self-support by doing odd jobs during daytime. Ray S. Bassler, his geology professor and Curator of Geology at the U.S. National Museum, helped him to get manual jobs in the museum. Because of his keen interest in paleontology, he was given a job as a preparator in the paleontology laboratory under G. Arthur Cooper. It was Cooper who guided him to have his first technical publication on Devonian brachiopods from Illinois in 1938. In 1937 he earned his BSc degree, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He enrolled for PhD at Yale University graduate school in geology the same year. Working on the major systematic monograph on a group of Paleozoic brachiopods, under the supervision of C. O. Dunbar, he received his doctorate in 1940. His thesis directly earned him the A. Cressey Morrison Prize in Natural History of the New York Academy of Sciences, and was published by the Geological Society of America as Special Paper 38 in 1942.
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