Kathryn Whaler

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Kathryn Whaler
Image of Kathy Whaler at the opening ceremony of the 2023 IUGG General Assembly, 13 July 2023.jpg
Whaler as IUGG President at the opening ceremony of the 2023 IUGG General Assembly, Berlin, 13 July 2023
Born
Kathryn Anne Whaler

(1956-06-11) 11 June 1956 (age 67)
Education
Awards
Scientific career
Fields Geophysics
Institutions
Thesis Some applications of inverse theory to geomagnetism (1981)
Doctoral advisor David Gubbins

Kathryn Anne "Kathy" Whaler [1] OBE FRSE FAGU (born 11 June 1956) is a professor of geophysics at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences, [2] in the Research Institute of Earth and Planetary Science and is a member of the Solid Earth Geophysics and Natural Hazards Research Group.

Contents

Whaler was the first woman to be elected to a chair in geophysics within the United Kingdom, [3] and the first female president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. [4] She has received recognition and awards for her contributions to various aspects of geomagnetism and her leadership roles within the geophysics community.

Early life and education

Born in Salisbury, Whaler attended Croydon High School for Girls (with a year at Old Kampala Senior Secondary School). She attended the University of Sussex between 1974 and 1977, graduating with BSc (1st Class Honours) in Mathematical-Physics. Her PhD thesis (1981), completed at the University of Cambridge, was entitled Some applications of inverse theory to geomagnetism.

Research

Whaler stayed at Cambridge in a post-Doctoral role for two years before joining the University of Leeds in 1983 as a lecturer. In 1994, she moved to the University of Edinburgh to take up the Chair of Geophysics. [5]

Whaler's first papers were related to inverse theory within Geomagnetism. Her 1981 contribution to a paper by R.L. Parker on 'Numerical methods for establishing solutions to the inverse problem of electromagnetic induction' was highly cited. [6] Following her graduation, Whaler's research turned towards the geomagnetic field within the Earth's core and Earth's mantle. [2]

Among Whaler's contributions to geomagnetism, she has participated in studies of the impact of satellite data on geomagnetic problems, including the impacts of Magsat (upon which she gave the Bullerwell Lecture in 1993). [7] Whaler was the principal investigator of a NERC funded consortium called GEOSPACE (Geomagnetic Earth Observation from SPACE.) This was a 5 year research grant funding the exploitation of data from the new generation of vector magnetic field satellites, and was in operation from 2004 to 2011. [8] [2] Whaler participated in studies on crustal magnetisation studies of the Earth, Mars and the Moon with Mike Purucker at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, partially related to GEOSPACE. [2]

Whaler has published papers related to projects on crustal geomagnetism in Africa, in particular related to Zimbabwe starting in 1993 [9] and the East African Rift system starting in 2000, [10] and often involving magnetotellurics. This is related to improving structural and tectonic understanding, and assessing hydrocarbon potential. Whaler was a part of the Afar rift consortium, an inter-disciplinary study of how the Earth’s crust grows at divergent plate boundaries, looking at the Afar Triple Junction. [2] It is within this field that she, in collaboration with Derek Keir, published her highest cited paper during the 2008-2013 time window relevant for inclusion in the Research Excellence Framework. In September 2013 she was interviewed by Becky Oskin from LiveScience.com in "Giant Underground Blob of Magma Puzzles Scientists", [11] for her contribution to an article in Nature Geoscience: "A mantle magma reservoir beneath an incipient mid-ocean ridge in Afar, Ethiopia". [12] The same year, Whaler was also interviewed for the Royal Society of Edinburgh's 14th edition of Science Scotland and this was reported in an article entitled "Magnetic Field Personality". [13]

She has undertaken a number of sabbaticals at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Harvard University, the University of California at San Diego (where she was a Green Scholar), Victoria University of Wellington, and Göttingen University (as Gauss Professor), funded by the Fulbright Foundation, NASA, the Cecil H and Ida M Green Foundation, and Göttingen Academy of Sciences.

Organisational roles

President of IUGG, Kathryn Whaler, opening the IUGG General Assembly in Berlin, 2023 Image of Kathy Whaler at the opening ceremony of the 2023 IUGG General Assembly, 13 July 2023 3.jpg
President of IUGG, Kathryn Whaler, opening the IUGG General Assembly in Berlin, 2023

In 2004, Whaler was elected President of the Royal Astronomical Society, the main learned society for Solid Earth Geophysics in the United Kingdom, serving in the role until 2006. [14] Whaler was made President of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy between 2011 and 2015 at the 25th IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne, [15] following a four year term as the Vice President of the same body from 2007 to 2011 [14] and a role as Executive Committee member (2003-7). [16]

Following her role as IAGA president, she became the Vice President of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics from 2015 to 2019 at the 26th IUGG General Assembly in Prague, [14] and then became the President from 2019 to 2023, becoming the first female president of the body. [4] [16]

Awards and recognition

Whaler gave the Bullard Lecture of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco in December 2012 [17] on studies in East Africa.

Whaler’s contributions have been recognised through Fellowship of the American Geophysical Union, the Institute of Physics, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, invitations to give the Bullerwell Lecture [18] and the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize Lecture, and the naming of a minor planet(asteroid)(5914 Kathywhaler) after her.

Whaler was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Price Medal in 2013. [19] The Price Medal is awarded for investigations of outstanding merit in solid earth geophysics, oceanography or planetary sciences.

Whaler was the recipient of the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize Lectureship 29th Award in 1996. [20]

Whaler received an OBE for services to Geophysics in 2018. [21]

In 2020, Whaler received the Clough Medal from the Edinburgh Geological Society. [22] In 2023, Whaler was announced as the Wollaston Medal awardee; the premier medal of the Geological Society of London. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geophysics</span> Physics of the Earth and its vicinity

Geophysics is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists, who usually study geophysics, physics, or one of the Earth sciences at the graduate level, complete investigations across a wide range of scientific disciplines. The term geophysics classically refers to solid earth applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational, magnetic fields, and electromagnetic fields ; its internal structure and composition; its dynamics and their surface expression in plate tectonics, the generation of magmas, volcanism and rock formation. However, modern geophysics organizations and pure scientists use a broader definition that includes the water cycle including snow and ice; fluid dynamics of the oceans and the atmosphere; electricity and magnetism in the ionosphere and magnetosphere and solar-terrestrial physics; and analogous problems associated with the Moon and other planets.

The British Geophysical Association (BGA) is a joint association of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Geological Society of London, which advances the interests of geophysics and geophysicists within the UK. It aims to promote the subject of geophysics and strengthen the ties between the geological and geophysical communities within the UK by holding meetings and courses, by encouraging the publication geophysical research, and by such other means as are deemed appropriate to an Association by its parent societies.

Allan Verne Cox was an American geophysicist. His work on dating geomagnetic reversals, with Richard Doell and Brent Dalrymple, made a major contribution to the theory of plate tectonics. Allan Cox won numerous awards, including the prestigious Vetlesen Prize, and was the president of the American Geophysical Union. He was the author of over a hundred scientific papers, and the author or editor of two books on plate tectonics. On January 27, 1987, Cox died in an apparent suicide.

Julius Bartels was a German geophysicist and statistician who made notable contributions to the physics of the Sun and Moon; to geomagnetism and meteorology; and to the physics of the ionosphere. He also made fundamental contributions to statistical methods for geophysics. Bartels was the first President of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA). With Sydney Chapman, he wrote the influential book Geomagnetism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics</span> International non-governmental organization

The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics is an international non-governmental organization dedicated to the scientific study of Earth and its space environment using geophysical and geodetic techniques.

Liviu Constantinescu was a Romanian geophysicist, professor of geophysics, member of the Romanian Academy. He was the cofounder, together with Sabba S. Ștefănescu, of the Romanian school of geophysics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy</span>

The International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) is an international scientific association that focuses on the study of terrestrial and planetary magnetism and space physics.

James Anthony Jackson CBE FRS is Professor of Active Tectonics and head of Bullard Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University. He made his name in geophysics, using earthquake source seismology to examine how continents are deformed. His central research focus is to observe the active processes shaping our continents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valery Korepanov</span> Ukrainian scientist (born 1943)

Valery Korepanov is a Ukrainian scientist was born on 1 July 1943 in the (former) Soviet Union. Since 1996 he has been the Scientific Director of the Lviv Centre of Institute for Space Research of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and State Space Agency of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of geophysics</span> Topics in the physics of the Earth and its vicinity

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to geophysics:

Violet Rosemary Strachan Hutton FInstP FRSE FRAS, known to her peers as Rosemary, was a Scottish geophysicist and pioneer of magnetotellurics. Her research focused on the use of electromagnetic methods to determine the electrical conductivity and structure of the Earth's crust, lithosphere and upper mantle, with a particular focus on the African continent and Scotland. She spent over two decades at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences as a researcher and lecturer and was a Fellow of many societies including the American Geophysical Union and The Royal Society of Edinburgh.

The Bullerwell Lecture is an annual award from the British Geophysical Association (BGA) bestowed on an individual for significant contribution to the field of geophysics. Scientists of any nationality but working in an academic institution in the United Kingdom qualify for the award. The award is named in honour of William Bullerwell.

Derek Keir has been an associate professor of geophysics at the University of Southampton since 2015. In 2013 he received the Bullerwell Lecture award from the British Geophysical Association (BGA) for significant contributions to geophysics.

Catherine L. Johnson is a planetary scientist known for her research on the magnetic fields of planets including Mercury, Venus, Earth and its moon, and Mars. In 2023, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

David Gubbins is a British former geophysicist concerned with the mechanism of the Earth's magnetic field and theoretical geophysics. He is Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at Leeds University.

Jo Ann Cram Joselyn is an astrogeophysicist. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate from the University of Colorado's astrogeophysics program, and has advocated for the importance of women's leadership in the sciences.

Mioara Mandea is Head "Science Coordination" Department, Strategy Directorate at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Mioara Mandea’s research has had a broader significance and a huge impact in the community. One of her accomplishments of incalculable importance is the assembling of the geomagnetic time series at Paris, opening the path to other long magnetic series as Munich and Bucharest and dedicated studies. Over her entire career, she has been focused on the geomagnetic field and its variations, using data derived from magnetic observatories and satellites participating in elaborating useful models, such as the IGRF series. With GRACEFUL, a Synergy project of the European Research Council in the framework of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Mioara Mandea continues her precursory work related to the dynamical processes in Earth's fluid core seen by both magnetic and gravity variations.

Catherine G. Constable is an Australian earth scientist who is a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her research considers palaeo- and geo-magnetism. Constable was awarded the American Geophysical Union William Gilbert Award in 2013 and elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017.

Juliet J. Biggs is a British geologist who is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol. Her research uses satellite geodesy and interferometric synthetic-aperture radar (InSAR) to understand the physics of the Earth's crust. She was awarded the American Geophysical Union John Wahr Award in 2017 and a European Research Council (ERC) consolidator grant in 2020.

References

  1. ↑ "New Year's Honours 2018" (PDF). Gov.uk . Government Digital Service. 29 December 2017. p. 43. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "People Kathryn Whaler". Dept of GeoSciences website. University of Edinburgh . Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "Geophysicist wins prestigious medal". ed.ac.uk. University of Edinburgh. 12 October 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 IUGG - Bureau of the Union Archived 2020-01-24 at the Wayback Machine . Retrieved 01/07/2015.
  5. ↑ "Women in Data Archive | News & Blogs".
  6. ↑ Parker, Robert L.; Whaler, Kathryn A. (1981). "Numerical methods for establishing solutions to the inverse problem of electromagnetic induction". Journal of Geophysical Research. 86: 9574–9584. Bibcode:1981JGR....86.9574P. doi:10.1029/JB086iB10p09574 . Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  7. ↑ "The Bullerwell Lecture". geophysics.org.uk. British Geophysical Association. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  8. ↑ "GEOSPACE". ed.ac.uk. University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  9. ↑ Whaler, K.A.; Zengeni, T.G. (1993). "An audiofrequency magnetotelluric traverse across the Mana Pools Basin, northern Zimbabwe". Geophysical Journal International. 114 (3): 673–686. Bibcode:1993GeoJI.114..673W. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.1993.tb06996.x . S2CID   130099461.
  10. ↑ Hautot, S.; Turits, P.; Whaler, K.A.; Le Gall, B.; Tiercelin, J.J.; Le Turdu, C. (2000). "Deep structure of the Baringo Rift Basin (central Kenya) from three-dimensional magnetotelluric imaging: Implications for rift evolution". Journal of Geophysical Research. 105 (B10): 23493–23518. Bibcode:2000JGR...10523493H. doi: 10.1029/2000JB900213 . S2CID   53964706.
  11. ↑ "WhalerLiveScience". LiveScience.com. 17 September 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  12. ↑ Desissa, M.; Johnson, N. E.; Whaler, K. A.; Hautot, S.; Fisseha, S.; Dawes, G. J. K. (October 2013). "A mantle magma reservoir beneath an incipient mid-ocean ridge in Afar, Ethiopia". Nature Geoscience. 6 (10): 861–865. Bibcode:2013NatGe...6..861D. doi:10.1038/ngeo1925 . Retrieved 4 October 2013.
  13. ↑ "An Interview with Kathy Whaler" (PDF). ScienceScotland. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  14. 1 2 3 "Kathy Whaler: Speaker profile". aiforgood.itu.int. AI For Good. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  15. ↑ "IAGA Executive Committee 2011-2015". IAGA-AIGA.org. International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  16. 1 2 "Kathy Whaler CV" (PDF). iugg.org. International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  17. ↑ "Whaler_Bullard". American Geophysical Union . Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  18. ↑ "Bullerwell Lecturers and Lectures". 21 December 2023.
  19. ↑ "Price award Whaler". Winners of the 2013 awards, medals and prizes. Royal Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  20. ↑ "Award Whaler". Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize Lectureship. The Royal Society of Edinburgh . Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  21. ↑ "New Year's Honours 2018" (PDF). gov.uk. UK Government. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  22. ↑ "Medallists and Award Winners". edinburghgeolsoc.org. Edinburgh Geological Society. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  23. ↑ "The Geological Society of London - 2023 awards and funds winners".
  24. ↑ "Edward Bullard Lecture".
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