Dan McKenzie | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1942-02-21)21 February 1942 (age 83) |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge, (BA 1963, PhD 1966) |
| Awards | A.G. Huntsman Award(1980) Balzan Prize(1981) Wollaston Medal(1983) Japan Prize(1990) Royal Medal(1991) Copley Medal(2011) William Bowie Medal(2001) Crafoord Prize(2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geophysics |
| Institutions | University of Cambridge |
| Thesis | The shape of the earth (1967) |
| Doctoral advisor | Teddy Bullard |
Dan Peter McKenzieCH FRS (born 21 February 1942) is a Professor ofGeophysics at theUniversity of Cambridge, and one-time head of theBullard Laboratories ofthe Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. He wrote the first paper defining the mathematical principles ofplate tectonics on a sphere, and his early work onmantle convection created the modern discussion of planetary interiors.
Born inCheltenham, the son of anear, nose, and throat surgeon,[1] he first attendedWestminster Under School and laterWestminster School, London.
McKenzie attendedKing's College, Cambridge where he readphysics, obtaining a 2:1 in his final degree.[1]
As a graduate student, he worked withEdward "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 theScripps Institution of Oceanography at theUniversity of California, San Diego, on the invitation ofFreeman Gilbert andWalter Munk. After eight months he returned to Cambridge, submitting hisPhD 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.[2]
Spending time between Cambridge and a Fellowship held inCaltech, McKenzie was invited, along with Teddy Bullard, to a conference in New York which initiated his revolutionary work on plate tectonics. After listening to separate talks from Fred Vine on plate tectonics,[3] looking at the thermal structure of oceanic plates as they formed and cooled.[1]
Following this, he published a seminal paper withBob Parker,[4] which employedEuler's Fixed Point Theorem, in conjunction with magnetic anomalies and earthquakes to determine a precise mathematical theory onplate tectonics. This work was published some 3–4 months after the same work had been carried out byJason Morgan atPrinceton. Allegations were subsequently made suggesting that McKenzie was at Morgan's springAGU talk where he presented his plate tectonics work.[1] Later in 1968 he went to Princeton where he found that he and Morgan had solved two or three problems using identical mathematics in exactly the same way – plate tectonics was one, another was the thermal structure of the oceans and another was looking at earthquake mechanisms in a different way to seismologists.[1]
Working with John Sclater, McKenzie determined the entire geological history of the Indian Ocean, the publication[5] of which eventually resulted in them both receiving Fellowships at theRoyal Society.
McKenzie was awarded a University position and took it up in 1969. At this point he decided to move away from plate tectonics, choosing instead to focus on the behavior of fluids below the plates. He studied cellular convection and motions in the mantle whilst at the same time pursuing yet another new avenue of research; the development ofsedimentary basins. It was from this work that he produced a classic paper[6] that has been widely accepted by oil companies as the "McKenzie Model of Sedimentary Basins."[1]
McKenzie was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976 aged just 34, and by 1978 was awarded a University Readership position.
McKenzie continues to work at the Bullard Laboratories in Cambridge where he is Professor of Earth Science. Most recently his research has provided new insights into the tectonic evolution of Mars and Venus. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigiousCrafoord Prize from theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his contributions to research in the field of plate tectonics, sedimentary basin formation and mantle melting. With his appointment as aMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2003, he brought the then current Cambridge membership of this elite group to four:Brenner, McKenzie,Hobsbawm andHawking. He also served on the Physical Sciences jury for theInfosys Prize from 2009 to 2011.
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