Sixth Presentation of the John Adam Fleming Award, April 19, 1967

Abstract

The honor paid to Ernest Harry Vestine by be award of the John Adam Fleming Medal would have greatly pleased Dr. Fleming, as it has Dr. Vestine's many friends and colleagues. Dr. Vestine is the fourth recipient of this award who was on Dr. Fleming's staff at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. This indicates Dr. Fleming's skill in choosing promising young scientists for appointment to that Department. Though Minneapolis born, Dr. Vestine spent part of his youth in Canada and studied there as an undergraduate and graduate. From there came his first contributions to geomagnetism and aeronomy as leader of the Canadian expedition to Meanook during the Second International Polar Year, 1932–1933. There he set up and operated a new magnetic observatory, which has since provided important magnetic data from the auroral cap of the Earth, above 60° dipole latitude. While at Meanook he observed noctilucent clouds and made one of the earliest reliable reports of them from this continent. In 1934 he wrote an important review article on this remarkable and beautiful phenomenon.