Walter Heinrich Munk. 19 October 1917—8 February 2019

Abstract

Born in Vienna, Austria, shortly before the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost its access to the sea, Walter Munk became a leading geophysicist and physical oceanographer after being sent to school in New York State and later moving west to California. He and Harald Sverdrup developed wave prediction schemes that were used by the Allies in World War II to evaluate whether amphibious landings would be feasible. His post-war research included further major contributions to the understanding of ocean waves, as well as ocean circulation, tides, internal waves, mixing processes and many other phenomena. He showed how variations in the Earth's rotation contained a wealth of valuable geophysical information and was an instigator of the ‘Mohole’ project that failed for political reasons but paved the way for the Deep Sea Drilling Project. Although primarily a theoretician, throughout his career he was an enthusiastic adopter of new technologies and data analysis techniques. He showed how acoustic transmissions could be used to map ocean eddies and currents as well as to monitor temperature changes of whole ocean basins. He was a key adviser to the US Navy and a dedicated member of the science advisory group, JASON, that focuses on national security. As well as his scientific contributions, his legacy includes the La Jolla Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. He was liberal in his political outlook, gregarious, hospitable and treated everyone, from undergraduate to admiral, with the same interest and respect.