John James Stevenson (geologist)
John James Stevenson (born October 10, 1841 in New York City , † August 10, 1924 there ) was an American geologist.
Stevenson was the son of a pastor who immigrated to New York from Ireland and studied at New York University , where he graduated in 1863 and received his doctorate in 1867. He then worked as a mining expert for friendly investors and in 1869 became professor of chemistry and science at West Virginia University . 1871/72 he was an assistant to John Strong Newberry in the Geological Survey of Ohio, was a geologist in the exploration of Colorado under Lieutenant George M. Wheeler in 1873/74 and from 1875 to 1877 assistant to J. Peter Lesley , the state geologist of Pennsylvania. In 1878 he was again under the direction of Wheeler in Colorado, was from 1879 to 1881 a consulting geologist in Virginia and New Mexico and in 1881/82 at the second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. From 1882 until his retirement in 1909 he was a professor at New York University.
He pioneered the study of the Pittsburgh coal basins and associated strata in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and one of the founders of coal stratigraphy in the United States. In Colorado, his stratigraphic work led to the realization that there had been several uplifts there instead of a single uplift as previously thought. In New Mexico he studied coal-bearing chalk layers.
He was one of the founders of the Geological Society of America in 1888 and secretary of its organizing committee and first secretary of the GSA, in which he held other high positions and became president in 1898 .
In 1891 he was Vice President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and from 1896 to 1898 President of the New York Academy of Sciences . In 1893 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
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Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Stevenson, John James |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 10, 1841 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 10, 1924 |
| Place of death | New York City |