William Glen (geologist and historian)

William Glen, Ph.D. is a geologist and historian of science. He is the former Editor-at-Large at Stanford University Press, former Visiting Scientist/Historian at the U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, and is currently Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, CA.

Selected bibliography

Books

• William Glen, 1970, Exercises in Physical Geology, W.C. Brown Publishing Co., 154 pp.
• William Glen, 1975, Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co., Columbus, Ohio, 188pp.
• William Glen, 1985, Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. Second Edition, Published by Geo-Resources Associates, San Mateo, Ca, 200pp.
• William Glen, 1982, The Road to Jaramillo: Critical Years of the Revolution in Earth Science Stanford University Press, Stanford, Ca.459
• William Glen (ed.) 1994, The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis Stanford University Press, Stanford, Ca.

Monographs

• William Glen, 1959, Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene of the Western Part of the San Francisco Peninsula., University of California Publications in the Geological Sciences, University of California Press, 36, 2: 147-198, plates 15-17, 5 text figs.

Awards, grant, honors

• National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow, Harvard University (1962–63)
• National Science Foundation Science Faculty Fellow, University of California, Berkeley (1963).
• National Science Foundation Research Fellow, Stanford University, Hopkins Marine Station, 1967.
• British Petroleum Ltd., book award ($2,500) for The Road to Jaramillo: Critical Years of the Revolution in Earth Science, 1983.
• National Science Foundation Research Grant ($40,000, 1985–86)
• National Science Foundation Research Grant ($25,000, 1986–88)
• National Science Foundation Research Grant ($40,000, 1989–92)
• The Road to Jaramillo: Critical Years of the Revolution in Earth Science, 1982, Stanford University Press was named as one of the forty-two “Great Books of Geology” in a survey of 900 departments of geology in North America (Journal of Geological Education,1993, v. 41, p. 261).
• National Science Foundation Research Grant ($60,000, 1993–96).
• Fellow, California Institute of International Studies, Hoover Institution, Stanford, California 94305-6010. (Elected to Fellowship in 1995).
• Inaugural Markey Trust lecturer, Center for History of Recent Science at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1996.
• The Wilbert Lecture (endowed by the Wilbert Foundation) on the History of the Mass Extinction Debates and a Comparison with the Plate Tectonics Upheaval, Nov 21, 1991, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

Pliocene Fresh water Gastropods from San Mateo County, Journal of

       Paleontology, 34, 6; l207-09, Nov. l960.

In Quest of a Multiple First, Journal of Paleontology, 41, 5: Sept. l967

The first Potassium-Argon Geomagnetic Polarity Reversal Time

           Scale: A Premature Start, by Martin G. Rutten, Centaurus, l98l, 25: 
                222-38.
            

The Jaramillo Event, in The Wiley Science Calender, John Wiley &

   Sons, Inc., New York, l985, l36-37.
           
History in the Fact: A Current Upheaval in Geophysics and           
        Astrophysics, 1986, Newsletter, Center for History of Physics,                                 
       Vol. XVII, 1:4-5.             

Review of History of Geophysics: Volume I, edited by C. Stewart

           Gillmor, American Geophysical Union, Wash,. DC, Isis, 1986, 77:287.                     
            

Review of Perspectives on a Dynamic Earth, by T.R. Paton with the

           assistance of J. Clarke. Isis, 1987, 78, 293: 455.
           

Heresiarchs, Converts and Disciples, Palaios, 1987, 2, 2:199-201.

The Jubilee of Plate Tectonics (with Henry Frankel), EOS, Transactions

            of the American Geophysical Union, 1988, 69,19:583-585.
 

Why Scientists Should do History, EOS, Transactions of the American

            Geophysical Union, 1988, 69, 46:1572.
        

David P. Stern and History in the American Geophysical Union, EOS,

            Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, 1989, 70, 25:664-              665.

Musings on the Review Process, Palaios, 1989, 4: 397-399.

Meteorites, Volcanoes and Dinosaurs: Update on a historical project on

            the Growing Debates, 1989, Newsletter, Center for History of                   
            Physics, 21, 2: 2-3.

The Growing Mass Extinctions Controversies: Impacts? Volcanism?

            Periodicity? Palaios, 1989, 4: 497-500.

Doctoral Time Rising Sharply, EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Mar. 27, 1990, 71, 13:353 & 362.

Review of Clarence King: A Biography, Revised and Enlarged Edition,

    Thurman Wilkins with the help of Caroline Lawson Hinkley, 

University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1988, in HESS, History of

        Earth Sciences Society Journal, 1990, 9,1:77-79.

Lessons from Mass Extinction EOS, Transactions of the American Geophysical

        Union, 1991, 72, 24:259.

What killed the dinosaurs: a decade of debates, American Scientist, July-Aug., 1990, p. 354-370. Reprinted in Annual Editions: Biology, 6th Edition, 1992, pp. 173–183, The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc.,Guilford, CT.

Choke-Holds, Radiolarian Cherts, and Davy Jones's Locker, (with Homer Le Grand)1993, Perspectives on Science, V. 1, No.1, p. 24-65.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

What the impact/volcanism/mass-extinction debates are about, 1994a, in Glen, W., ed., The Mass

       Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis: Stanford: Stanford University Press. 
       p. 7-38.    

How science works in the mass-extinction debates, 1994b, in Glen, W., ed., The Mass Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis: Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 39-91.

The "Preface" (3,000 words) to the book, Craters, Cosmos and Chronicles: A New Theory of Earth,

       1994c, by Herbert Shaw, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Observations on the mass-extinction debates, 1996,, in Ryder, G., Fastovsky, D., & Gartner,

       S., eds., The Cretaceous-Tertiary Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History: Boulder,
       Colorado, Geol. Soc. Amer. Spec. Paper 307, pp. 39–53.

Muse, Myth, and Mind: Problems in the rational reconstruction of science history, 1995: presented at a working conference at Stanford University, 28-30

       April, 1994, on Writing the History of Recent Science, H. F. Judson convener and editor of
       anthology volume not yet titled.

The Global Warming Question: History Speaks to Science. Presented at The Annual Conference of the

      National Institutes of Health at the Natcher Center, Bethesda, MD, on March 6–7, 1997.
      Published in the Conference Proceedings of the National Institutes of Health for 1997.

Book review of The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controversy, by Charles Officer and Jake Page. 1996,

      Helix books, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., Menlo Park, CA. 209 pages. (Eos,                      Transactions of the  American Geophysical Union, V. 78, No. 34,pp. 359–361, August 26,
      1997.

Book review of T. rex and the Crater of Doom, by Walter Alvarez, 1997, Princeton University Press,

      Princeton, N. J. 185 pages. (Isis, Vol. 81, No. 1, pp. 164–166, March, 1998).

Book review of Thinking about the Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology, 1996, by David Oldroyd,

      Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA(Jour. Geol. Education, Sept, 1997)

A Manifold Current Upheaval in Science, 1999, Earth Sciences History, V.17, No. 2 (Impacts

      Issue:Rocks from Space?) pp. 190–209. 

A Triptych to Serendip: Prematurity and Resistance to Discovery in the Earth Sciences, 2002, in

      Prematurity in Scientific Discovery: On Resitstance and Neglect,, ed. by E. B. Hook,
      p. 92-108, University of California Press, Berkeley, Ca. A Symposium volume in honor of
      Professor Gunter Stent.

Herbert R. Shaw (1930–2002), June 17, 2003, A memorial in EOS, Transactions of the American

      Geophysical Union, V. 84, no. 24: 227 and 230.

The Accreted Terrane Controversy or Continental Geologists Strike Back, 2003, with H.E. Le Grand,

     in K. R. Benson & F. Rehbock, eds., Oceanographic History: The Pacific and Beyond (University
     of Washington Press: Seattle), pp. 493–501. 

The origins and early trajectory of the mantle-plume quasi-paradigm, 2005, in Foulger, G.R.,

     Natland, J. H., Presnall, D.C., and Anderson, D. L., eds., Plates, Plumes, and Paradigms:
     Geological Society of America Special Paper 388, p. 91-117.

Preface to King of the Fortieth Parallel: Discovery in the American West by James Gregory Moore,

     2006, p. xi-xv, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.

ABSTRACTS, NOTES AND LETTERS

Keys to the Revolution in Earth Science, EOS, Transactions of the

     American  Geophysical Union, l983, 64, 45:688.
             

The First Potassium-Argon Geomagnetic Polarity Reversal Time Scale:

     A Premature Start, by Martin G. Rutten, History of Physics   
     Newsletter, l,2:39, Feb. l983.

Keys to the Revolution in Earth Science, Newsletter,  American
     Geophysical Union Committee on the History of Geophysics, l983.
     No. 3, p. l0.

Comment on "Particles in fluid inclusions from Yellowstone National 
     Park" by  K.E. Barger, R.O. Fournier, and T.G. Theodore, 1986,Geology, Vol.14, 1:90-9l
              
Alvarez receives astral tribute.  EOS, Transactions of the American
     Geophysical Union, 1988, 69, 52:1668.
                
Styles of Conflict: Past and Present, Prog. with Abstracts, Proc. Pacif.  
     Div., AAAS,  69th Ann. Meet., 1988, v.7, pt. 1, p. 7.

The Growing Mass Extinctions Controversies: Impacts? Volcanism?

     Periodicity? Palaios, 1989, 4: 497-500.

What killed the dinosaurs: a decade of debates, American Scientist, July-

     Aug., 1990, p. 354-370. Reprinted in Annual Editions:
     Biology, 6th Edition, 1992, pp. 173–183, The Dushkin 
     Publishing Group, Inc., Guilford, CT.

Lessons from Mass Extinction EOS, Transactions of the American

     Geophysical  Union, 1991, 72, 24:259.

What the Mass Extinction Debates are About Abstracts, Biannual Meeting, International Society

     for the History, Philosophy and Social  Studies of Biology, Northwestern University,July 12,  
     1991.

The Power of Gestalt, Standards of Appraisal, and the Polemic Mode

     Abstracts, Biannual  Meeting, International Society
     for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of  
     Biology, Northwestern University, July 12, 1991.

Mindset, Standards, and Style in the Mass Extinction Debates, Abstracts

     Volume, 29th International Geological Congress, 24 Aug.-3 Sept. 1992.

The History of the Current Impact/Volcanism/Mass-Extinction Debates,

     Abstracts  Volume, 29th International Geological Congress, 24 Aug.-3  Sept., 1992.

Science Observed: The mass-extinction debates, Abstracts Volume, Conference on New Developments

     Regarding the K/T Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History, pp. 44–45,  Feb. 9-12, 
     1994, University  of Houston, Texas, sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute

How different disciplines have responded to the Alvarez-Berkeley group hypothesis, 1995, Abstracts

     vol., Geological Society of America Annual  Meeting, 24-27 Oct., GSA History of Geology
     Division Symposium, Historical Investigations of Extraterrestrial Events and Causes in Earth
     History, 26 Oct.                   

History and status of the mass-extinction controversy, 1995, Montanari, A. & Coccioni, R. (eds.)

     Abstracts Volume, Fourth International Workshop on  Impact Cratering and Evolution of Planet
     Earth, p. 77-79, May 12–17, Ancona/Portonovo, Italy, Sponsored by the European Science
     Foundation.

Ruminations on Science: Venerability, Preeminence, and Comportment. An essay on the history of

     the U. S. Geological Survey and a guide to the conduct of institutional science. Published
     for the professional staff of the U.S. Geological Survey by the Chief Geologist for the
     Western Region.

IN PROGRESS

BOOKS The Road from Gubbio: Debating Meteorites, Volcanoes and Mass

    Extinctions. ( a book based on a 30-year longitudinal, real-time study planned 
    for completion in 2013).     

Myth, Muse, and Mind: Doing Current History of Science A volume grown from the essay, Myth Muse,

    and Mind: Problems in the Rational Reconstruction of Science History.
    Focused on historiographic methods of current science history
    practice. Intended for the Stanford University Press in 2012.                       

The Anatomy of a Scientific Bandwagon: The Role of the Accretionary Terrane Program and the

    Evolution of the Plate Tectonics Paradigm. (With Homer Le Grand )

ARTICLES Does the Refereeing Process in Science Work?(intended for Social Studies of Science).

Periodicity in the Earth Sciences (intended for Isis or Centaurus).

The Origins of the Concept of Great Lateral Crustal Mobility

    (intended for HESS, History of Earth Sciences Journal) 

The Case of Maurice Ewing and Lamont-Doherty Observatory’s Role in

    the Plate Tectonics Upheaval 

What Do We Know About the K-T Boundary: An Overview, intended for Abstracts volume for Geological Society of America meeting.

SELECTED INVITED LECTURES

The Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale and Its Application to Plate

       Tectonics, Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society, Dec.     
        l979, New York City.

The Role of Oceanic Magnetic Data in the Confirmation of the Sea-

   Floor Spreading Hypothesis, The Oceanic Society, San Francisco,
        Jan. 1980.

The Oceanic Origins of the Vine-Matthews-Morley Hypothesis, Third International Congress on the

       History of Oceanography,International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, Woods
       Hole, Mass., Sept. l980.
                 

Origins of the Vine-Matthews-Morley Hypothesis, U.S. Geological

   Survey, Menlo Park, CA., Sept. l98l.

The Triggering of the Modern Revolution in Geology, University of
        California, Santa Cruz, March, l984.

The Road to Jaramillo, University of California, Davis, May, l984.

A Comparison of In-the-Fact Versus After-the-Fact Historical Data,

   Tremont Research Institute, San Francisco, Nov., l984.

Revolutions and Upheavals in Earth Science: From Plate Tectonics to Alvarez Theory,

       University of California, Berkeley, March, l985.

Revolutions, Upheavals, and the Status of Impact Theory,

       San Jose State University,  May, 1986.

The Impact of Impact Theory, University of California, Santa Cruz,

   May, 1987      
                 
Styles of Conflict, Past and Present. AAAS, 69th Annual Meeting, Pacific
      Div., Oregon  State University,  June 18,  1988.

Are Standards for Admission to Graduate School Rational: Predicting Excellence and

      Productivity in Science, University of California, Berkeley, February 13, 1991.

The Anatomy of the Mass Extinction Debates: The Power of Disciplinary Specialty in

      Cognition and Theory Choice, Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, March 4, 1991.

The Mass Extinction Debates: Science and Human Behavior, Part I, U.S. Geological Survey,

      Menlo Park, CA, June 27, 1991.

The Mass Extinction Debates: Part II, Aug, 14, 1991, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA.

The Wilbert Lecture (endowed by the Wilbert Foundation) on the History of the Mass

      Extinction Debates and a Comparison with the Plate Tectonics Upheaval, 
      Nov 21, 1991, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

How Scientists Behave in Theoretical Debates, university-wide lecture at Louisiana

      State University, Baton Rouge, Nov. 22, 1991. 

Lessons from the Mass Extinction Debates: How Science works, October

      21, 1992, university-wide lecture at University of California, Santa Cruz.

Subjectivities and Standards: History, Philosophy, and Sociology of the

      Mass Extinction Debates, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, October 28, 1992.

The Mass Extinction Debate: How Science Works in a Crisis, university wide lecture at

      the University of Nevada, Reno, 12:00 noon. Sept 27, 1993.

What Killed the Dinosaurs? University wide lecture at the University

      of Nevada, Reno, 7:00 PM, Sept. 27, 1993.

How the Earth Works: Formation and Evolution of Earth through Geologic Time, Nov. 1993,

      The Pioneer Elementary School, Pioneer Station,CA.

How Science is Done During a Revolution, California State University, Hayward, CA. May 11, 1994.

How different disciplines have responded to the Alvarez-Berkeley group hypothesis,

      Oct. 26, 1994, Geol. Soc. Amer. Ann. Meet. 24-27 Oct., GSA History of Geology 
      Division Symposium, Historical Investigations of  Extraterrestrial Events and Causes 
      in Earth History, 26 Oct. (published in abstracts volume).

The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis, university wide lecture at

      University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada,Oct. 28. 1994. 

The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis, university-wide lecture at

      Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Oct. 31, 1994.

Is Science Rational? College of San Mateo, San Mateo, CA, December 1, 1995

History and status of the mass-extinction controversy, Keynote Address, 1995,

      Fourth International Workshop on Impact Cratering and Evolution of Planet Earth, 
      May 12, 1995, Ancona/Portonovo, Italy, Sponsored by the  European Science 
      Foundation   (Published as: History and status of the mass-extinction controversy, 1995, 

Montanari, A. & Coccioni, R. (eds.) Abstracts Volume, Fourth International Workshop on

      Impact Cratering and Evolution of Planet Earth, p. 77-79, May 12–17, Ancona/Portonovo,                 Italy, Sponsored by the European Science Foundation.

What Killed the Dinosaurs, Public lecture sponsored by the

      U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA, June 29, 1995.

"Where the Ogre of History Smells Human Flesh, There he Plies His Trade: How History Vitalizes

      the Teaching of Science," Lecture to the faculty of the  College of San Mateo, San Mateo,
      CA, Fall Semester,1995.

The Dinosaur Extinction Debates: Science, Polemics and Gestalts, Sponsored by the

      Townesend Center, The School of Public Health, and the Office for History of 
      science and Technology, University of California, Berkeley, February 28, 1996.

What Killed the Dinosaurs? Evidence, Polemics, Context: The Scientific and social History

      of the Impact Theory of Mass Extinctions. Delivered as the Inaugural Markey Trust 
      lecture upon the opening of the newly founded  Center for History of Recent Science 
      at George Washington University, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1996.

Organizer and Moderator of a panel discussion on "Tuning the Engine of Science. "

      Panelists: Elihu Gerson (Director, Tremont Research Institute), Michael Ghiselin 
      (Chair, Div. of History and Philosophy of Science, California Academy of Science), 
      Allan Lindh (geophysicist and philosopher, U.S. Geological Survery) and Leo Laporte 
      (Provost of Coe College, U.C. Santa Cruz)at the U.S. Geological Survey, 
      Menlo Park, CA., Dec. 9, 1996.

A Radical Skeptic's View of the History of Science, April 2, 1997,

      Sons in Retirement, Mid-Peninsula Branch, Palo Alto, CA

Consideration of Research Methodologies in History of Science: The Case for Radical

      Skepticism. Delivered at the Maury Workshop in the  History of Oceanography, Woods Hole,
      Mass., June 11–13, 1997. Sponsored by The Office of Naval Research and the Marine 
      Policy Center  (MPC) at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The workshop title is: 
      "Hot War, Cold War: The Political and Social Context of Disciplinary Development 
      in Oceanography, 1918-1990.                         

The Impact/Volcanism/Mass-Extinction Debates. University-wide lecture at Texas Tech University,

      Lubbock, Texas, November, 1997

Prematurity and Revolution in Science: Global Warming, Plate Tectonics and Impact/Volcanism

      Extinction Theories. Delivered at a Symposium on  Prematurity in Scientific Discovery
      held on December 5–7, 1997, at the University of California at Berkeley in honor 
      of Professor Gunter Stent. The essay version of this talk comprises chapter eight 
      in the symposium volume  titled: Prematurity in Scientific Discovery: On Resistance 
      and Neglect, Published by the University of California Press, Berkeley, 2002.