Biography of Alfred Wegener Alfred Lothar Wegener was born in Berlin on November I, 1880. He studied natural sciences at the University of Berlin and earned a PhD degree in planetary astronomy in 1904. But his interests soon shifted from astronomy to meteorology. He then joined his older brother Kurt as an assistant at the Prussian Aeronautical Laboratory. He was actively involved in tracking air circulation of upper atmosphere with the help of kites and balloons. In fact he and his brother Kurt set a new world record by staying aloft in a hot air balloon for more than 52 hours. His commitment and hard work, won him an opportunity in 1906 to join a Danish led expedition that were to map the unexplored northeast coast of Greenland. Wegener was the first to use kites and fixed balloons to study the polar atmosphere during the expedition that lasted for two years. After returning to Germany he was offered a private p.osition in the University of Mar burg where he taught astronomy and meteorology. Wegener compiled his meteorology lecture notes into a book, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere (published in 1911), in which he correctly explained the theory of raindrop formation in temperate latitudes. This book later became a standard text throughout Germany. At Marburg in the autumn of 1911, Wegener came across a scientific paper that listed fossils of identical plants and animals found on opposite sides of the Atlantic. It was then that the idea of continental drift began to take shape as he collected more corroborating and similar evidences. He later recalled, a conviction of the fundamental soundness of the idea took root in my mind. In 1912, at the age of 31, Wegener published two articles in which he hypothesized the theory of continental drift. Immediately after his wedding with Else in 1913, Wegener had to go to serve in the First World War as a soldier. While recovering from the war injury in a military hospital he could devote ample time to further refine his work on continental drift. He authored another book in 1915 The origin o/Continents and Oceans which became one of the most influential and controversial books in the history of science. Expanded editions were subsequently published in 1920, 1922, and 1929. At the end of the war, in December 1918 he obtained his first regular academic post by replacing his father-in-law, Vladimir Koppen, as a professor of meteorology at Hamburg. In 1924, the University Graz in Austria appointed him a professor of meteorology and geophysics. In November 1930, shortly after his 50th birthday he and his companion Rasmus Villumsen died while returning from the camp in the middle the Greenland ice to the base camp on the west coast of Greenland. Wegeners ideas were fully recognized by the world only after his death. His theory gave new directions to research in the Earth sciences. Further refinement of his ideas have led to better understanding of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, formation of mountains and valleys and various geological processes.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 06:16:14 +0000
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