Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener (/ˈveɪɡənər/;[1] German: [ˈʔalfʁeːt ˈveːɡənɐ];[2][3] 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.
Alfred Wegener
November 1930 (aged 50)
German
German
University of Berlin (PhD)
Kurt Wegener (brother)
Paul Wegener (cousin)
Wladimir Köppen (father-in-law)
Heinrich Harrer (son-in-law)
Siegfried Uiberreither (son-in-law)
During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth (German: Kontinentalverschiebung).
His hypothesis was not accepted by mainstream geology until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.[4][5]
Wegener was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological observations and were the first to overwinter on the inland Greenland ice sheet and the first to bore ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.
Awards and honours
The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany, was established in 1980 on Wegener's centenary. It awards the Wegener Medal in his name.[36] The crater Wegener on the Moon and the crater Wegener on Mars, as well as the asteroid 29227 Wegener, the Wegener Peninsula in Eastern Greenland and the peninsula where he died in Western Greenland near Ummannaq, 71°12′N 51°50′W / 71.200°N 51.833°W, are named after him.[37]
The European Geosciences Union sponsors an Alfred Wegener Medal & Honorary Membership "for scientists who have achieved exceptional international standing in atmospheric, hydrological or ocean sciences, defined in their widest senses, for their merit and their scientific achievements."[38]
