Herbert E. Huppert

Herbert Eric Huppert (born November 26, 1943 in Sydney ) is an Australian geophysicist. Since 1989 he has been the founding director of the Institute for Theoretical Geophysics at Cambridge University and Professor of Theoretical Geophysics there.

He is known for his work on geophysical hydrodynamics, both in the atmosphere, ocean and, for example, turbidites , pyroclastic flows and landslides, flows in porous media, dynamics of volcanic eruptions. He deals with phase transitions from liquid to solid phase and ice formation in the Antarctic and Arctic.

Huppert studied applied mathematics at the University of Sydney with a bachelor's degree in 1963, was at the Australian National University in 1964, and from 1965 at the University of California, San Diego , where he received his doctorate in 1968. He then went to the DAMTP (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics) at Cambridge University. Initially in 1968/69 as an ICI Research Fellow, from 1970 as Assistant Director of Research, from 1981 as University Lecturer and from 1988 as Reader in Geophysical Dynamics and from 1989 as Professor of Theoretical Geophysics. Huppert was also a mathematics professor at the University of New South Wales from 1991 to 1996 , where he has also been a professor since 2012.

In 1987 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and served on its council from 2001 to 2003 and in its working group on bioterrorism since 2002. In 2020 he received one of her highest awards, the Royal Medal . In 2011 he gave the Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society and in 2006 received its Wolfson Merit Award. Since 1970 he has been a Fellow of King's College in Cambridge. In 2005 he received the Arthur L. Day Prize . He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Physical Society . In 2007 he received the Murchison Medal and in 2011 he was elected a member of the Academia Europaea .

Huppert was co-editor of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A from 1994 to 1999 , of Reports on Progress in Physics from 1997 to 2000, and of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics from 1971 to 1990. He received an honorary doctorate (Sc.D.) from Cambridge.

His wife Felicia Huppert (married 1966) is a psychology professor at Cambridge. He has two sons, one of whom (Julian) is a Member of Parliament for Cambridge.

Web links

• Homepage