U.S. National Academy of Sciences : Agassiz Medal

Abstract

THE National Academy of Sciences presented the Alexander Agassiz Gold Medal and honorarium for 1948 to Dr. Thomas Gordon Thompson at the autumn meeting of the Academy held at the University of California, Berkeley, on November 15. Dr. Thompson, professor of chemistry and director of the oceanographic laboratories of the University of Washington at Seattle and Friday Harbor in the State of Washington, has long been a leader in investigations of the complex chemistry of the ocean, with special attention to the waters of the north-east Pacific, Puget Sound, the San Juan Archipelago and the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Under his inspiration and leadership, his associates and students have devised and developed effective methods and techniques for the isolation and the quantitative determination of many of the elements and their compounds which occur in minute concentrations in sea water. Examples of such are iron, lithium, silicon, manganese, aluminium, boron and radium, the fluorides, phosphates and silicates, the isotopes of the elements of water and the dissolved gases, and the ionic ratios of the major constituents of sea water in various parts of the ocean. In organising the oceanographic laboratories at Seattle and Friday Harbor, Dr. Thompson brought together specialists in the fundamental sciences associated with the various departments of a great university, and directed their attention and stimulated their interest in the many problems presented by oceanic phenomena. Dr. Thompson has been chairman of various international committees, particularly the committee of the International Association of Physical Oceanography, appointed for the purpose of establishing standard units and procedures for the promotion of studies of the chemistry of the ocean. Established by Sir John Murray in 1911, the Alexander Agassiz Gold Medal is awarded by the Academy "for original contribution in the science of oceanography to scientific men in any part of the world".