Robert Ladislav Parker

Last updated
Robert Ladislav Parker
Born(1942-02-24)24 February 1942
Education University of Cambridge, UK
Known forGeophysical Inverse Theory
SpouseFlorence Monica Dirac [1]
Awards John Adam Fleming Medal [2]

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society [3]

Fellow, Royal Society of London [4]
Scientific career
FieldsGeophysicist and Mathematician
Institutions Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Thesis Geophysical Studies in Electromagnetic Induction [5]  (1966)
Doctoral advisor Edward Bullard

Robert L. Parker is an American geophysicist and mathematician, currently holding a Professor Emeritus of Geophysics position at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California.

Contents

The Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics in La Jolla

After completing a B.A. in Natural Sciences in 1963, M.A. in 1964, and Ph.D. in 1966 [6] in Geophysics at Downing College, Cambridge in England, [7] Parker moved to the U.S. to work at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). He has subsequently built on work by Freeman Gilbert and George Backus regarding inverse theory and is a world-renowned expert on the general subject of inverse theory, having written one of the authoritative books [2] on the subject: Geophysical Inverse Theory . [8] He is a former director of IGPP.

Personal life

Parker is an avid bicyclist and keeps track of all of his miles. [9] He has also written about the energy behind bicycle physics. [10]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Astronomical Society</span> British learned society and charity

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its headquarters are in Burlington House, on Piccadilly in London. The society has over 4,000 members, known as fellows, most of whom are professional researchers or postgraduate students. Around a quarter of Fellows live outside the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sydney Chapman (mathematician)</span> British mathematician and geophysicist

Sydney Chapman was a British mathematician and geophysicist. His work on the kinetic theory of gases, solar-terrestrial physics, and the Earth's ozone layer has inspired a broad range of research over many decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Jeffreys</span> British physicist and mathematician

Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS was a British geophysicist who made significant contributions to mathematics and statistics. His book, Theory of Probability, which was first published in 1939, played an important role in the revival of the objective Bayesian view of probability.

Dan Peter McKenzie is a Professor of Geophysics at the University of Cambridge, and one-time head of the Bullard Laboratories of the Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. He wrote the first paper defining the mathematical principles of plate tectonics on a sphere, and his early work on mantle convection created the modern discussion of planetary interiors.

Keith Edward Bullen FAA FRS was a New Zealand-born mathematician and geophysicist. He is noted for his seismological interpretation of the deep structure of the Earth's mantle and core. He was Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Sydney in Australia from 1945 until 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Munk</span> American oceanographer (1917–2019)

Walter Heinrich Munk was an American physical oceanographer. He was one of the first scientists to bring statistical methods to the analysis of oceanographic data. Munk worked on a wide range of topics, including surface waves, geophysical implications of variations in the Earth's rotation, tides, internal waves, deep-ocean drilling into the sea floor, acoustical measurements of ocean properties, sea level rise, and climate change. His work won awards including the National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, and induction to the French Legion of Honour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward A. Irving</span> Paleomagnetist

Edward A. "Ted" Irving, was a geologist and scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada. His studies of paleomagnetism provided the first physical evidence of the theory of continental drift. His efforts contributed to our understanding of how mountain ranges, climate, and life have changed over the past millions of years.

William Richard Peltier, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), is university professor of physics at the University of Toronto. He is director of the Centre for Global Change Science, past principal investigator of the Polar Climate Stability Network, and the scientific director of Canada's largest supercomputer centre, SciNet. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the American Geophysical Union, of the American Meteorological Society, and of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael S. Longuet-Higgins</span>

Michael Selwyn Longuet-Higgins FRS was a British mathematician and oceanographer at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), Cambridge University, England and Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego, USA. He was the younger brother of H. Christopher Longuet-Higgins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Hide</span> British physicist

Raymond Hide CBE FRS was a British physicist, who was a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and, since 2000, senior research investigator at Imperial College, London.

George Edward Backus is an American geophysicist, best known for his work with J. Freeman Gilbert on inverse methods for geophysical data. He is also notably credited with advancing the dynamo theory on the origin of the Earth's magnetic field.

William M. Kaula was an Australian-born American geophysicist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kaula was most notable for his contributions to geodesy, including using early satellites to produce maps of Earth's gravity. The National Academies Press called Kaula "the father of space-based geodesy". The Los Angeles Times called him "one of the leading planetary physicists of the last four decades".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathryn Whaler</span> Geophysicist

Kathryn Anne "Kathy" Whaler OBE FRSE FAGU is a professor of geophysics at the University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences, in the Research Institute of Earth and Planetary Science and is a member of the Solid Earth Geophysics and Natural Hazards Research Group.

Johannes Weertman was an American materials scientist and geophysicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor McDougall</span>

Trevor John McDougallFAGU is a physical oceanographer specialising in ocean mixing and the thermodynamics of seawater. He is Emeritus Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and is Past President of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.

Hrvoje Tkalčić is Australian and Croatian scientist (geophysicist) and Professor at the Australian National University in Canberra.

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.

Brian Leslie Norman Kennett is a mathematical physicist and seismologist. He is now a professor emeritus at the Australian National University.

Paul Harry Roberts FRS was a physicist and applied mathematician interested in fluid dynamics in geophysical and astrophysical contexts. His work included important contributions to magnetohydrodynamics and dynamo theory.

References

  1. "Paul Adrian Maurice Dirac". Royal Society. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Robert L. Parker Honors Program". AGU. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  3. "Prof. Robert L. Parker FRS: Gold Medal" . Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  4. "Royal Society Parker Biography". Royal Society. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  5. "Parker Thesis". University of Cambridge Library catalog. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  6. Robert Ladislav Parker at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  7. "CV".
  8. Parker, Robert L. (1994). Geophysical Inverse Theory. Princeton University Press. ISBN   9780691036342.
  9. "Bicycle Logs" (PDF).
  10. "Bicycle Physics" (PDF).