James Perrin Smith

James Perrin Smith (born November 27, 1864 in Cokesburg , South Carolina , † January 1, 1931 ) was an American geologist and paleontologist. He was a professor at Stanford University .

Life

The family moved in the 1870s to Spartanburg, where he attended Wofford College with a bachelor's degree in 1884. Then went to Vanderbilt University and was after the master's degree in 1887 math and science teacher in Nashville . He self-taught geology, mineralogy and chemistry and began working for the Arkansas Geological Survey in Little Rock under John Casper Branner . He also collected fossils mainly of carbon. From 1890 to 1892 he studied in Göttingen with Adolf von Koenen and in Munich with Karl Alfred von Zittel , with whom he later corresponded. Von Koenen aroused his interest in the Triassic and the Ammonites, and in 1892 he received his doctorate magna cum laude from Koenen . On his return he became an assistant professor at Stanford University and later a professor. In 1930 he retired. In the summer of 1895 to 1924 he worked regularly for the US Geological Survey.

He dealt specifically with ammonites of the Triassic in North America and classified them, partly with Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902). In connection with this, he also investigated the stratigraphy and paleogeography of the Triassic, following and supplementing the Triassic stratigraphy by Edmund Mojsisovics von Mojsvár and his Austrian colleagues. During his lifetime, along with Carl Diener , with whom he was friends, he was considered one of the leading experts on the classification and worldwide distribution of Triassic ammonites. He also dealt with the geology of California and paleoclimatology. He was considered a charismatic personality in Stanford (nickname JP ).

In 1892 he married Frances Norris Rand, with whom he had three sons and a daughter. His older brother Charles was a classical philologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin and also tutored his brother James, who maintained a lifelong interest in classical Greek and Latin literature.

In 1925 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received its Mary Clark Thompson Gold Medal in 1928. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society . In 1916 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wofford College.

The Smith Creek on Ellesmere Island is named after him and after that the Smithium (by Tim Tozer ). Siemon Muller is one of his PhD students .

Fonts

• with Alpheus Hyatt: Triassic Cephalopod Genera of America, US Geological Survey Papers, 40, 1905, pp. 1-394
• The Stratigraphy of the western American Trias, Festschrift Adolf von Koenen 1907, pp. 377–434
• The middle Triassic marine invertebrate Faunas of North America, US Geological Survey Paper 83, 1914, pp. 1-254
• Upper triassic marine invertebrate faunas of North America, US Geological Survey Professional Paper 141, 1927, pp. 1-262
• Lower Triassic Ammonoids of North America, US Geol. Survey Professional Paper 176, 1932, pp. 1-199
• Classification of marine Trias, The Journal of Geology, 4, 1896, 385, Archives

literature

• Eliot Blackwelder, Biographical Memoirs, Nat. Acad. Sci., Pdf