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17 Facts About Edward Bullard

1.

Sir Edward Crisp Bullard FRS was a British geophysicist who is considered, along with Maurice Ewing, to have founded the discipline of marine geophysics.

2.

Edward Bullard developed the theory of the geodynamo, pioneered the use of seismology to study the sea floor, measured geothermal heat flow through the ocean crust, and found new evidence for the theory of continental drift.

3.

Edward Bullard was educated at Norwich School and later studied Natural Sciences at Clare College, Cambridge.

4.

Edward Bullard studied under Ernest Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory of University of Cambridge and in the 1930s he received his PhD degree as a nuclear physicist.

5.

Edward Bullard found poor career prospects for nuclear physicists during the Great Slump, so in 1931 he switched fields to take a job as demonstrator in the department of geodesy and geophysics at Cambridge.

6.

Edward Bullard was appointed to this position on the recommendation of Rutherford.

7.

Edward Bullard held a chair at the University of Toronto from 1948 to 1950 and was head of the National Physical Laboratory between 1950 and 1955.

8.

Edward Bullard was knighted in the 1953 Coronation Honours List.

9.

Edward Bullard returned to Cambridge in 1955, first as an assistant in research, then as a Reader and finally to a chair created for him in 1964.

10.

Edward Bullard was a founding fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

11.

Edward Bullard became one of the most important geophysicists of his day.

12.

Edward Bullard did studies of the ocean floor, even though he suffered from seasickness and could rarely take scientific trips on the ocean.

13.

Edward Bullard was important to dynamo theory, hence his most important work concerned the source of the Earth's magnetic field.

14.

Edward Bullard was often frustrated by efforts to increase geophysical interest at the University of Cambridge.

15.

Edward Bullard was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1954.

16.

Edward Bullard was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1969.

17.

Edward Bullard's papers are held by the Churchill Archives Centre.