Athelstan Spilhaus

Athelstan Spilhaus

Infobox_Scientist
name = Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus


image_width = 175px
caption = Spilhaus is standing to the right during the announcement of plans for the building and launching of the world's first man-made satellite, July 29, 1955. (NASA)
birth_date = birth date|1911|11|25|mf=y
birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa
death_date = death date and age|1998|3|30|1911|11|25|mf=y
death_place =
residence =
citizenship =
nationality =
ethnicity =
field = Geophysics
Physical Oceanography
work_institution = Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
American Newspaper Publishers Association
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Bathythermograph
author_abbreviation_bot =
author_abbreviation_zoo =
prizes =
religion = Episcopalian
footnotes =

Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus (November 25, 1911 - March 30, 1998) was a South African-American geophysicist and oceanographer. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He became a US citizen in 1946. Among other accomplishments, Spilhaus is credited with proposing the establishment of Sea Grant Colleges in 1964 as a parallel to the successful land-grant colleges.

In 1936 Spilhaus joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, where he developed the bathythermograph, which made the measurement of ocean depths and temperatures from a moving vessel possible, a device which proved indispensable to submarine warfare. This invention established his international reputation. [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00500/cah-00500.html]

Spilhaus was also chair of the scientific advisory committee of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. He became known by the public for his "Our New Age" Sunday feature, which appeared in the color comics section of 93 newspapers (1957-1973). [http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/fishlines/Apr98.html] [http://www.sandsmuseum.com/misc/spillhaus/about/autospil.html] [http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/cartoon.htm (Image of 11/28/71 strip)] He apparently enjoyed authoring the feature; in response to a question about its broad scope in a mid-sixties TV interview, Spilhaus modestly replied he'd learned quite a lot by writing it.

External links

* [http://www.aps-pub.com/proceedings/1443/Spilhaus.pdf Biographical Memoir] by William A. Nierenberg (Proceedings Of The American Philosophical Society Vol. 144, No. 3, September 2000)
* [http://www.itdean.umn.edu/news/inventing/1998_Spring/retrospect.html Retrospect: Athelstan Spilhaus] at U. of Minn. Inst. of Technology


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Spilhaus, Athelstan Frederick — ▪ 1999       South African born geophysicist who counted among his designs a device to measure deep sea temperatures, a plan for covered walkways and tunnels for protection against severe weather, and some 3,000 varieties of toys; in 1954 he… …   Universalium

  • Bathythermograph — The bathythermograph, or BT, is a small torpedo shaped device that holds a temperature sensor and a transducer to detect changes in hydrostatic pressure. Lowered into the water from an under way ship, the BT records pressure and temperature… …   Wikipedia

  • National Sea Grant College Program — The National Sea Grant College Program is a program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the U.S. Department of Commerce. It is a national network of 30 Sea Grant Colleges and universities involved in scientific… …   Wikipedia

  • World Ocean — Not to be confused with Ocean World (disambiguation). Animated map exhibiting the world s oceanic waters. A continuous body of water encircling the Earth, the World Ocean is divided into a number of principal areas with relatively free… …   Wikipedia

  • Océano Mundial — Animación mostrando las aguas océanicas terrestres. El océano Mundial, el cuerpo continuo de agua que rodea la Tierra, se divide en una serie de áreas principales, con un intercambio relativamente libre entre ellas. Se suelen considerar cinco… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Anemometer — A hemispherical cup anemometer of the type invented in 1846 by John Thomas Romney Robinson Cup ty …   Wikipedia

  • Nature — This article is about the physical universe. For other uses, see Nature (disambiguation). Natural and Natural World redirect here. For other uses, see Natural (disambiguation). See also: Natural environment Hopetoun Falls, Australia …   Wikipedia

  • Franklin Institute — This article is about the science museum in Philadelphia. For the Boston school, see Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. Founded in honor of Benjamin Franklin, The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of… …   Wikipedia

  • Natural environment — This article is about the environment. For other uses, see Environment (disambiguation). See also: Nature Land management policies have been developed to preserve the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls, Australia while allowing ample… …   Wikipedia

  • Air Force reports on the Roswell UFO incident — The two Air Force reports on the Roswell UFO incident, published in 1994/5 and 1997, form the basis for much of the skeptical explanation for the 1947 incident, the purported recovery of aliens and their craft from the vicinity of Roswell, New… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”