Kenneth Xu ( born Kenneth Hsü ; born Xu Jinghua , Chinese , Xǔ Jìnghuá, July 1, 1929 , Nanjing ) - scientist- geologist , oceanographer and paleoclimatologist , member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA .
Kenneth Xu | |
---|---|
English Kenneth hsü | |
Date of Birth | July 1, 1929 (90 years) |
Place of Birth | |
A country | Republic of China |
Scientific field | geology , oceanography , paleoclimatology |
Place of work | |
Alma mater | National Central University , University of California, Los Angeles |
Academic title | Professor |
supervisor | David T. Griggs |
Awards and prizes | Wollaston Medal ( 1984 ) Penrose Medal ( 2001 ) [d] ( 1984 ) [d] ( 1987 ) |
Content
Biography
Xu Jinghua was born in Nanking in 1929. In 1948 he received a bachelor 's degree in geology from the National Central University (Nanjing), after which he continued his education in the USA. In 1950, he received a second degree in geology at Ohio State University , and in 1954 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of California at Los Angeles under the supervision of David T. Griggs [2] .
After graduation, Xu was hired by Shell Development , an oil producing company, first as a geologist and then as a project manager and research scientist. After working at Shell until 1963, he became a teacher at Harpur College in New York State, and the following year he moved to the University of California at Riverside . In 1964, his wife Ruth Xu, who bore him three children, died in a car accident; two years later, Xu married a second time to the Swiss-born Christine Eigster, who bore him another child. In 1967, Xu began working at the Swiss Higher Technical School of Zurich , where he taught until 1994, twice during this time occupying the position of dean. During these years, he was also a visiting professor at the University of California at San Diego (1972) and at the California Institute of Technology (1991).
At the end of his work in Zurich, Xu lectured at the (1994–1995), the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1995), the (1996) and the (1997) . Over the years of his career, Xu headed a number of professional organizations and commissions, including taking from 1978 to 1982 the post of President of the International Association of Sedimentology. He also served as chief editor of the journal Sedimentology [3] .
In 1992 he signed the “ Warning to Humanity ” [4] .
Scientific work
Over the years of scientific work, Kenneth Xu has published over 400 government reports and articles in scientific journals and collections, as well as 20 books, including the Geological Atlas of China [2] . His areas of interest include sedimentology , processes associated with the movement of lithospheric plates (including thrusts and folding ), paleoclimatology , Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction , and various aspects of mathematics.
In the late 1960s, Xu contributed to the definition of the nature of - complex breccias of deep-water origin, subsequently processed in thrust zones [5] and are a mixture of sedimentary and volcanic rocks interspersed with metamorphic rocks squeezed up along the subduction zone . Studies conducted by Xuy in the Alps, led to a better understanding of the processes of thrust, and his analysis of the modern processes of sedimentary rock transformations as a result of evaporation made it possible to get an idea of the origin of Alpine carbonates and flyshees . The name of Xu is a diagram invented by him that allows you to compare rock deformations [2] .
Kenneth Xu was a member of the deep-sea ocean drilling program, carried out by the research vessel . He took part in the Glomar Challenger expedition to the Mediterranean Sea, which resulted in particular in the theory of the Mediterranean salinity crisis that he put forward. Xu was able to show the influence of significant changes in the level of the Mediterranean Sea on the climate and wildlife of this region - the connection, which later formed the basis of the popular science book The Mediterranean Sea was a desert ( The Mediterranean Was a Desert ) [2] .
Studies of catastrophic natural processes in the Mediterranean, and later in the region of the Swiss Lake Walenza, led Xu to reject the traditional concept of evolution as a gradual process of accumulating change. In 1986, he published an article entitled The Three Errors of Darwin in the journal Geology , where, in the spirit of neocatastropism, he criticized Darwin for denying the phenomenon of mass extinctions and the theory that the diversity of species increases exponentially. In the same year his popular science book came out, justifying the extinction of dinosaurs by the collision of the Earth with a comet. In this book, Xu sharply criticizes the idea of natural selection , calling it absurd and stating that its popularity is dictated by economic and ideological considerations [6] . His anti-Darwinian views were further developed in the 1989 article “Is Science Darwinism?” ( Is Is Darwinism Science? ) [2] .
In addition to geology and related paleoclimatology and paleoecology, Xu published a number of works in the field of mathematics, including "Applied Fourier analysis", "Pie charts in polynomial time" and "Fractal geometry in music" [2] .
Recognition of merits
Kenneth Xu, a 1972 Guggenheim Fellow [3] and a member - the National Academy of Sciences of Taiwan [6] , has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA in the geological section since 1986 [7] . Since 1987, he is also an honorary doctor of Nanjing University (PRC). Xu was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London , the Twenhofel Medal of the (both - 1984), as well as the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America (2001) [3] .
Notes
- ↑ German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 122492684 // General Regulatory Control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gates, 2003 , p. 124.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Gates, 2003 , p. 125
- ↑ World Scientists' Warning To Humanity (English) . stanford.edu (18 November 1992). The appeal date is June 25, 2019. Archived December 6, 1998.
- ↑ L.I. Krasny, V.L. Librovich. Melange // Geological dictionary. - M .: Nedra, 1978.
- ↑ 1 2 Emerson Thomas McMullen. Kenneth J. Hsu: Catastrophes, Dinosaurs and Evolution (English) . Georgia Southern University (1999). The appeal date is March 29, 2016.
- ↑ Kenneth J. Hsu, ETH Zurich (English) . National Academy of Sciences. The appeal date is March 18, 2018.
Literature
- Alexander E. Gates. Hsu, Kenneth J. // A to Z of Earth Scientists. - New York: Facts On File, 2003. - P. 124-125. - ISBN 0-8160-4580-1 .