Alfred G. Fischer

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Alfred George Fischer (born December 12, 1920 in Rotenburg an der Fulda ; † July 2, 2017 in Santa Barbara , California ), called Al Fischer, was a German -American geologist .

life and work

Fischer came from a German-American family and grew up partly in Germany. In 1935 he came to the USA and attended college in Watertown (Wisconsin) . He studied geology at the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in 1939 and a master's degree in 1940. From 1941 to 1943 instructor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute , 1943/44 geologist at Stanolind Oil and Gas in Kansas and 1944 to 1946 geologist in Florida. In 1947 he became an instructor at the University of Rochester and from 1948 at the University of Kansas , where he became an assistant professor after receiving his doctorate from Columbia University in 1950 . He spent five years, from 1951 to 1956, as a senior geologist for Esso in Peru before becoming Assistant Professor in 1956 and Professor in 1963 at Princeton University . In 1984 he became a professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 1991 he retired. Alfred G. Fischer was among other things visiting professor in Innsbruck, Tübingen and Berlin.

In 1992 he received the Gustav Steinmann Medal for groundbreaking insights into the rhythms of life and the earth's climate . In 1993 he received the Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America, the Lyell Medal in 1992 , the William H. Twenhofel Medal in 1982 and the Leopold von Buch plaque in 1972 . In 1994 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences , whose Mary Clark Thompson Medal he received in 2009. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . He was an honorary doctor from the University of Tübingen. In 1969/70 he was a Guggenheim Fellow .

Fischer was particularly concerned with marine sedimentology and marine fossil fauna and was a leading scientist in the Deep Sea Drilling Project. In 1964 he described the Lofer cyclothema , a cyclothema of the Dachstein limestone near Salzburg. In the 1970s he propagated the existence of global biorhythms in the fossil record: 1977 the concept of oligotaxic-polytaxic cycles - that is, cycles with low biodiversity (oligotaxic) and high biodiversity (polytaxic) - from 32 million years in the marine fauna, and In 1982 he advocated the general global oscillation of the earth's climate between ice ages and warm periods (icehouse-greenhouse concept).

In a dissertation suggested by him, H. Ohlen examined the exact transition from the outer to the inner area of ​​the reef on the stone slab reef ( Oberrhät -Kalk) near Waidring in Tyrol from the Triassic period. With Robert E. Garrison, Fischer investigated the formation conditions of limestones in the deep sea of ​​the Alpine Jura.

Fonts

  • The Lofer cyclothems of the alpine Triassic , Kansas State Geol. Surv. Bull. 169, Vol. 1, 1964, pp. 107-150.
  • Gilbert — bedding rhythms and geochronology , in Ellis Yochelson (Ed.) The Scientific Ideas of GK Gilbert , Geol. Soc. At the. Spec. Papers 183, 1980, pp. 93-104.
  • Climatic oscillations in the biosphere , in M. Nitecki (editor) Biotic Crises in Ecological and Evolutionary Time , Academic Press, New York, 1981, pp. 103-131.
  • Climatic rhythms recorded in strata , Annual Reviews, Earth and Planetary Science, Volume 14, 1981, pp. 351-367.
  • with DJ Bottjer: Orbital forcing and sedimentary sequences , J. of Sedimentary Petrology, Volume 61, 1991, pp. 1063-1069.
  • with MA Arthur: Secular variations in the pelagic realm , in HE Cook, P. Enos (Ed.) Deep Water Carbonate Environments , Soc. Econ. Paleontol. Mineral. Spec. Publ. 25, 1977, pp. 18-50.
  • with TD Herbert: Stratification-rhythms. Italo-American Studies in the Umbrian facies , Memoria della Societa Geologica Italiana, Volume 31, 1986, pp. 45-51.
  • with TD Herbert: Milankovitch climatic origin of the mid-cretaceous black-shale rhythms in Central Italy , Nature, Volume 321, 1986, pp. 739-743.
  • Orbital cyclicity in mesozoic strata , in G. Einsele, W. Ricken, A. Seilacher Cycles and events in stratigraphy , Springer 1991, pp. 48-62.
  • Long term climatic oscillations recorded in stratigraphy , in Climate in Earth History: Studies in Geophysics , National Academy of Sciences Press 1982, Online .
  • Fischer, S. Honjo, Garrison: Electron micrographs of limestones and their nannofossils , Princeton University Press 1967.
  • Fischer, Garrison: Carbonate lithification on the sea floor , J. Geology, Volume 75, 1976, pp. 488-496.

literature

  • Wolfgang Schlager on the Steinmann Medal for Fishermen, Geologische Rundschau, Volume 83, 1994, pp. 3–4.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date and place of birth according to the yearbook of the Academy of Sciences Mainz 2005 and Debus World Who's Who in Science 1968. After Pamela Kalte u. a. American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004, December 10, 1920 in Rothenburg.
  2. ^ Susan Bell: In memoriam: Alfred Fischer, 96, prominent geologist. University of Southern California , July 24, 2017, accessed July 26, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Laudation Steinmann Medal ( Memento from May 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ Both are often cited together for this work.
  5. ^ H. Ohlen: The Steinplatte Riff complex of the alpine triassic (Rhaetian) of Austria , dissertation, Princeton 1959.
  6. ↑ Garrison, Fischer: Deep water limestones and radiolarites of the alpine Jurassic , Soc. Econ. Paleont. Mineral. Special Publications, Vol. 14, 1969, pp. 20-56.
personal data
SURNAME Fischer, Alfred G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fischer, Al
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 12, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotenburg on the Fulda
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 2017
Place of death Santa Barbara , California