Keith Runcorn

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(Stanley) Keith Runcorn FRS[1] (19 November 1922 – 5 December 1995) was a British physicist whose paleomagnetic reconstruction of the relative motions of Europe and America revived the theory of continental drift and was a major contribution to plate tectonics.[1][2][3]

Education and early life

Runcorn was born in Southport, Lancashire, and educated at King George V Grammar School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, whence he graduated in engineering within two years in 1942.[4] After a period in radar research during the World War II, he joined the Physics Department at the University of Manchester where he did research on aspects of the Earth's magnetic field, taking his PhD for research supervised by Patrick Blackett in 1949.[5][6][7]

Career and research

Runcorn's PhD led to his interest in palaeomagnetism, the study of the magnetism of rocks, which he pursued first at the Geophysics Department at the University of Cambridge and later at Newcastle University, where he was appointed to the chair of Physics in 1956. At Newcastle, Runcorn developed a strong research group in geophysics, and made substantial contributions to various fields, including convection in the Earth and Moon, the shape and magnetic fields of the Moon and planets, magnetohydrodynamics of the Earth's core, changes in the length of the day, polar wandering, continental drift and plate tectonics. After his retirement in 1988 he continued to be active in various lines of research until his untimely death in San Diego in 1995.

Awards and honours

Runcorn received many honours, including Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1965, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and the Fleming medal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).[8] He was also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 1970 he was awarded the Vetlesen Prize, widely considered the highest honor in geology.[9][10] In 1981, Runcorn became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[11] He served as the Sydney Chapman Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences at the University of Alaska from 1989 to 1995. In 2007 the RAS named an award – for the year's best PhD thesis in geophysics – the Keith Runcorn Prize in his honour.[12]

Refereed journal publications

Popularizations

Edited books

  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ahrens, L. H.; Rankama, K.; Runcorn, S. K., eds. (1956). Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. Pergamon Press.
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, S. K., ed. (31 December 1960). Methods and Techniques in Geophysics: v. 1. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470745144. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  • Continental drift (1962), S.K. Runcorn.
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, S. K., ed. (1 January 1966). Methods and Techniques in Geophysics: v. 2. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470745182.
  • International dictionary of geophysics : seismology, geomagnetism, aeronomy, oceanography, geodesy, gravity, marine geophysics, meteorology, the earth as a planet and its evolution (1967), ed.
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, S. K., ed. (1 January 1968). Mantles of the Earth and Terrestrial Planets. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0470745212.
  • Methods in palaeomagnetism: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Palaeomagnetic Methods (1967), edited by D.W. Collinson, K.M. Creer, S.K. Runcorn
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, S. K., ed. (1970). Palaeogeophysics. London: Academic Press. ISBN 978-0126027501.
  • Earth Sciences (1971), S.K. Runcorn
  • Implications of continental drift to the earth sciences (1973) NATO Advanced Study Institute, D.H. Tarling and S.K. Runcorn
  • Mechanisms of continental drift and plate tectonics (1980) edited by P. A. Davies and S. K. Runcorn
  • Magnetism, planetary rotation, and convection in the solar system : retrospect and prospect : in honour of Prof. S.K. Runcorn (1985) edited by W. O'Reilly, S. K. Runcorn
  • Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, S. K., ed. (1988). The Physics of the planets : their origin, evolution and structure (Fac-sim ed.). Chichester: Wiley. ISBN 9780471916215.

Death

Runcorn was murdered in his hotel room in San Diego during a lecture trip to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Police found that he had been strangled and found evidence of injuries to the head.[13] Paul Cain, a professional kick-boxer, was later convicted and sentenced to a term of at least 25 years.[14] Prosecutors argued that Cain killed Runcorn after stealing his wallet and credit cards, having targeted him as an elderly gay man and therefore easy victim. Cain was tried three times in all. The first trial ended with a deadlocked jury; the second with a conviction that was overturned on appeal, on grounds that testimony from Cain's two previous wives as to his violent temper should not have been admitted in evidence.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Collinson, D. W. (2002). "Stanley Keith Runcorn. 19 November 1922–5 December 1995". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 48: 391–403. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2002.0023. JSTOR 3650268.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hide, Raymond (1996). "Stanley Keith Runcorn F.R.S. (1922–1995)". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 37 (3). Royal Astronomical Society: 463–465. Bibcode:1996QJRAS..37..463H.
  3. ^ Biography - Newcastle
  4. ^ Creer, K. M., "Runcorn, (Stanley) Keith (1922–1995)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, September 2004. Retrieved 19 July 2020 (subscription required)
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Runcorn, Stanley Keith (1949). Investigations relating to the main geomagnetic field. manchester.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Manchester. OCLC 643616687. Template:Copac.
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Powell, T. E.; Harper, P. "Outline of the Career of Stanley Keith Runcorn" (2002). Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Stanley Keith Runcorn FRS (1922-1995), geophysicist. Volume 1, pp. 5–7. London: College Archives, Imperial College.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Gillispie, Charles Coulston, ed. (2008). "Runcorn, Stanley Keith". Complete dictionary of scientific biography. Vol. 24. Detroit, Mich.: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 298–302. ISBN 978-0-684-31559-1.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hide, Raymond. "Keith Runcorn". Awards & Medals. European Geosciences Union. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Runcorn, Cox, Doell receive Vetlesen Prize". Physics Today. 24 (8): 75. August 1971. doi:10.1063/1.3022903.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Stanley Keith Runcorn". The Vetlesen Prize. Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."About Us". World Cultural Council. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Elliott, David. "Keith Runcorn honoured". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Sullivan, Walter (7 December 1995). "Leading Expert in Geophysics Is Found Slain in Hotel Room". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  14. ^ "Kick-boxer jailed for death of geophysicist," Nature, v.389, p.657 (16 October 1997)
  15. ^ Ben Fox, "Man claims childhood abuse led him to murder renowned UAF scientist," Peninsula Clarion (28 February 2000)

Further reading

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