Jump to content

Louis B. Slichter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jon Kolbert (talk | contribs) at 02:42, 23 July 2018 (Updating URL format for The New York Times). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Louis Byrne Slichter (May 19, 1896 – March 25, 1978) was an American physicist and geophysicist who directed the Institute of Geophysics at UCLA. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Slichter was notable for, among other things, earth tides research,[4] submarine detection,[4] development of three-component short-period seismographs,[4] studies of the earth temperature distribution,[4] and the invention of a number of important geophysical devices.[4] Slichter Foreland peninsula in Antarctica is named after him.[5][6] The Institute of Geophysics building in UCLA where he used to work as a director of the Institute has been named Slichter Hall.[1] He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the chair of the Academy's Geophysics Section.[2] He was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[2] a fellow of the American Physical Society,[2] and a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.[2] The New York Times called Slichter a "widely honored pioneer in the earth sciences".[1] The National Academy of Sciences called him "one of the foremost geophysicists of the twentieth century, an outstanding leader, scholar, and teacher".[2] UCLA called him "the world leader in the analysis of the solid earth tides".[4]

Family

Louis Slichter was the son of the mathematician Charles S. Slichter, brother of economist Sumner Slichter, and uncle of physicist Charles P. Slichter. His sister-in-law was biochemist Mary Van Rensselaer Buell.[7]

Chronology

References