Geology at MIT 1865-1965: A History of the First Hundred Years of Geology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vol. 1 The Faculty and Supporting Staff Hardcover - 1977

From the publisher

After an opening salute to the teaching assistants, research associates, librarians, secretaries, and shop personnel who were mainstays of the geologydepartment over the years, Professor Shrock proceeds to the heart of his mammothundertaking: he presents biographies of all 53 professors who served the departmentfor its first century, along with their portraits and bibliographies of theirpublications. Chronologically, they range from William Rogers, the geologist whofounded MIT, to Gene Simmons (who as an authority on the minerals of the moon, reflects the giant steps that science has taken in recent years) and Frank Press, inrecognition of the department's second century. In between are the biographies ofsuch notable earths scientists as Alpheus Hyatt, Thomas Sterry Hunt, Thomas Jaggar, Hervey Shimer, Reginald Daly, Waldemar Lindgren, Martin Julian Brueger, and PatrickHurley.Of course, Professor Shrock's own autobiographical sketch appears in thisseries. His permanent place in the history of his science derives from his work inpaleontology and sedimentology. In 1944, The MIT Pres published his Index Fossils ofNorth America, written with his faculty colleague Hervey Shimer, and it has been insteady demand ever since, with its tenth reprinting in 1977.Professor Shrock wasalso Head of the Department of Geology and Geophysics from 1950 to 1965. Thedepartment has since been renamed the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences toreflect man's new capacity to explore extraterrestrial geologies and possiblebiologies, but the core of its activities remains solidly down to earth. That one ofShrock's successors was named by President Carter to be his science advisor is inpart recognition of the increasing importance of the earth sciences and theirattendant environmental concerns in all o our lives. The scientists whose careersare outlined in this massive and lovingly prepared work devoted their lives toincreasing man's understanding of the earth and its resources, and they are worthyof the tribute their colleague has paid them, whether they have long before enteredthe earth or still probe its surface, discovering ever more about its nature, character, and riches.