Branches of Mathematics

Pure mathematics

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Applied mathematics

• Dynamical systems and differential equations
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Related Topics

• Electromagnetic Spectrum
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• Applied Physics
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• Abu Rayhan Biruni
• Al-Ma'mun
• Alexis Clairaut
• Alfred Wegener
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• Arne Bjerhammar
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• Azimuth
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• Earth science
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• Erik Grafarend
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• Figure of the Earth
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• George Biddell Airy
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• German language
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• Gravitational field
• Gravity
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• Graz
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• Greek Language
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• GRS 80
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• Harold Jeffreys
• Height
• Heinrich Bruns
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• Hervé Faye
• Hipparchus
• History of geodesy
• Hydrology
• IERS
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• Irene Fischer
• IUGG
• J. H. Pratt
• Johann Jacob Baeyer
• John A. O'Keefe
• Karl Ramsayer
• Karl-Rudolf Koch
• Kronstadt datum
• Laser ranging
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• London
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• Loránd Eötvös
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• Mantle convection
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• Martin Hotine
• Mean sea level
• Meridian (geography)
• Meridian arc
• Mesopotamia
• Mikhail Molodenskii
• Mineral physics
• Muhammad al-Idrisi
• Munich
• NAD83
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• Nutation
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• Oceanography
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• Ostend
• Paleomagnetism
• Pedro Nunes
• Petr Vaníček
• Petroleum
• Physical geodesy
• Physical geography
• Pierre Bouguer
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• Pierre-Simon Laplace
• Plate tectonics
• Plumbline
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• Polygons
• Portugal
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• Precession
• Pythagoras
• Rafael Mercado Aced
• Real Time Kinematic
• Reference ellipsoid
• Regiomontanus
• Roman Empire
• Rotation
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• Seismology
• Sidereal time
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• Space techniques
• Spirit level
• SRID
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• Template Geodesy
• Thaddeus Vincenty
• Theodolite
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• Triangulation
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• USGS
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• Vienna
• Vincenty's formulae
• Volcano
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• Wikipedia INCITE
• Wiktionary Undulate
• Willebrord Snellius
• Willem Baarda
• William Bowie
• Yrjö Väisälä
• Zenith
• Zenith distance
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  Baghdad
  Baghdad (Arabic: بغداد‎, Baġdād, IPA: [bæɣˈdæːd]) is the capital of Republic of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Province. The population of Baghdad as of 2011 is approximately 7,216,040, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
  Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic World. This in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom) garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world with an estimated population of 1,200,000 people. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture.
  
  wn.com/Baghdad
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  Bavaria
  Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria (German: Freistaat Bayern, pronounced [ˈfʁaɪʃtaːt ˈbaɪ.ɐn] ( listen)), is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi), it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany. Bavaria is Germany's second most populous state (after North Rhine-Westphalia), with 12.5 million inhabitants, more than any of the three sovereign states on its borders. Bavaria's capital is Munich.
  One of the oldest states of Europe, it was established as a duchy in the mid first millennium. In the 17th century, the Duke of Bavaria became a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire. The Kingdom of Bavaria existed from 1806 to 1918, and Bavaria has since been a free state (republic). Modern Bavaria also includes parts of the historical regions of Franconia and Swabia.
  The Bavarians emerged in a region north of the Alps, originally inhabited by the Gauls, which had been part of the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum. The Bavarians spoke Old High German but, unlike other Germanic groups, probably did not migrate from elsewhere. Rather, they seem to have coalesced out of other groups left behind by Roman withdrawal late in the 5th century. These peoples may have included the Celtic Boii, some remaining Romans, Marcomanni, Allemanni, Quadi, Thuringians, Goths, Scirians, Rugians, Heruli. The name "Bavarian" ("Baiuvarii") means "Men of Baia" which may indicate Bohemia, the homeland of the Celtic Boii and later of the Marcomanni. They first appear in written sources c. 520. Saint Boniface completed the people's conversion to Christianity in the early-8th century. Bavaria was, for the most part, unaffected by the Protestant Reformation.
  
  wn.com/Bavaria
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  Belgium
  Belgium (ⁱ/ˈbɛldʒəm/ BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers, mostly Flemish (about 60%), and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons (about 40%), plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.
  
  wn.com/Belgium
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  Fredericton
  Fredericton ( /ˈfrɛdrɨktən/ or /ˈfrɛdɨktən/) is the capital of the Canadian province of New Brunswick, by virtue of the provincial parliament which sits there. An important cultural, artistic, and educational centre for the province, Fredericton is home to two universities and cultural institutions such as the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the York Sunbury Museum, and The Playhouse—a performing arts venue.
  The city hosts the annual Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, attracting regional and international jazz, blues, rock, and world artists. Fredericton is also known for its indie rock scene and the record label Forward Music Group.
  As a provincial capital, its economy is inextricably tied to the fortunes of the public sector; however, the city also contains a growing IT and commercial sector. The city has the highest percentage of residents with a post-secondary education in the province and one of the highest per capita incomes.^{[citation needed]}
  In the 2011 census, the population of the city of Fredericton was 56,224 and the population of the census agglomeration (termed "Greater Fredericton") was 94,268. Fredericton is the third largest city in the province after Saint John and Moncton, making it the only provincial capital in the country to not be at least its province's second largest city.
  
  wn.com/Fredericton
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  London
  London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
  London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.
  
  wn.com/London
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  Portugal
  Portugal ⁱ/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
  The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
  
  wn.com/Portugal
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  Vienna
  Vienna ( /viːˈɛnə/; German:  Wien (help·info) [viːn]) is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population), and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 9th-largest city by population in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German speaking city in the world, and before the first world war and the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian empire the city had 2 million inhabitants. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city lies in the east of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  
  wn.com/Vienna

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  Abu Rayhan Biruni
  Abū al-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm, died in the year 13 December 1048 in Ghazni), known as Alberonius in Latin and Al-Biruni in English, was a Persian-ChorasmianMuslim scholar and polymath of the 11th century.
  Al-Biruni is regarded as one of the greatest scholars of the medieval Islamic era and was well versed in physics, mathematics, astronomy, and natural sciences, and also distinguished himself as a historian, chronologist and linguist. He was conversant in Chorasmian, Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Turkic, and also knew Greek, Hebrew and Syriac. He spent a large part of his life in Ghazni in modern-day Afghanistan, capital of the Ghaznavid dynasty which ruled eastern Iranian lands and the northwestern Indian subcontinent. In 1017 he traveled to the Indian subcontinent and became the most important interpreter of Indian science to the Islamic world. He is given the titles the "founder of Indology" and the "first anthropologist". He was an impartial writer on custom and creeds of various nations, and was given the title al-Ustdadh ("The Master") for his remarkable description of early 11th-century India. He also made contributions to Earth sciences, and is regarded as the "father of geodesy" for his important contributions to that field, along with his significant contributions to geography.
  
  wn.com/Abu_Rayhan_Biruni
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  Al-Ma'mun
  Abū Jaʿfar Abdullāh al-Māʾmūn ibn Harūn (also spelled Almamon, Al-Maymun and el-Mâmoûn, Arabic ابوجعفر عبدالله المأمون) (September 13, 786 – August 9, 833) (المأمون) was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 813 until his death in 833. He succeeded his brother al-Amin.
  Al-Ma'mun was born on September 13, 786 CE to the Abbasid emperor Harun and a Persian woman called Marajil.
  
  wn.com/Al-Ma'mun
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  Alexis Clairaut
  Alexis Claude de Clairaut (or Clairault) (3 May 1713 – 17 May 1765) was a prominent French mathematician, astronomer, geophysicist, and intellectual.
  Clairaut was born in Paris, France, where his father taught mathematics. He was a prodigy — at the age of twelve he wrote a memoir on four geometrical curves and under his father's tutelage he made such rapid progress in the subject that in his thirteenth year he read before the Académie française an account of the properties of four curves which he had discovered. When only sixteen he finished a treatise on tortuous curves, Recherches sur les courbes a double courbure, which, on its publication in 1731, procured his admission into the French Academy of Sciences, although he was below the legal age as he was only eighteen.
  In 1736, together with Pierre Louis Maupertuis, he took part in the expedition to Lapland, which was undertaken for the purpose of estimating a degree of the meridian arc. After his return he published his treatise Théorie de la figure de la terre (1743). In this work he promulgated the theorem, known as Clairaut's theorem, which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator. This hydrostatic model of the shape of the Earth was founded on a paper by Colin Maclaurin, which had shown that a mass of homogeneous fluid set in rotation about a line through its centre of mass would, under the mutual attraction of its particles, take the form of an ellipsoid. Under the assumption that the Earth was composed of concentric ellipsoidal shells of uniform density, Clairaut's theorem could be applied to it, and allowed the ellipticity of the Earth to be calculated from surface measurements of gravity. In 1849 Stokes showed that Clairaut's result was true whatever the interior constitution or density of the Earth, provided the surface was a spheroid of equilibrium of small ellipticity.
  
  wn.com/Alexis_Clairaut
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  Alfred Wegener
  Alfred Lothar Wegener (November 1, 1880 – November 1930) was a German polar researcher, geophysicist and meteorologist.
  During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered for first proposing the theory of continental drift (Kontinentalverschiebung) in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. His hypothesis was controversial and not widely accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of Plate tectonics. Wegener was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological observations and achieved the first-ever overwintering on the inland Greenland ice sheet as well as the first-ever boring of ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.
  
  wn.com/Alfred_Wegener
• Arne Bjerhammar
  Arne Bjerhammar (September 15, 1917 – February 6, 2011) was a Swedish geodesist. He was professor at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. He was born in Båstad, Scania in the south of Sweden.
  His research covered many fields of geodesy. As a result of his doctor’s dissertation “A contribution to the methods of optical distance measuring, specially with regard to the problems of automatic plotting“ and for his refinement of the modulation system of the Swedish EDM instrument Geodimeter he became one in the record of Swedish inventors. However, many geodesists (and mathematicians) know him for the first time for his new matrix algebra with generalized matrix inverses, published in 1955 (in Swedish) and 1957 (in English). Seven years later, fascinated by M.S. Molodensky’s new approach to solve the basic problems of physical geodesy, he presented his original idea of analytical downward continuation of the gravity anomaly to an internal sphere (“the Bjerhammar sphere”). Among other areas of interest are his original proposals of recovering the Earth’s gravity field by using the energy integral for satellites (1967) and by the theory of general relativity using atomic clocks (1975 and 1985) as well as his studies on the correlation between the gravity field and the Fennoscandian land uplift phenomenon in the 1970-ties. He is the author of about 200 scientific articles, including 2 textbooks, many of the articles published as internal KTH reports. He chaired the IAG study group on Statistical Methods in Geodesy (1963–1967).
  
  wn.com/Arne_Bjerhammar
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  Carl Friedrich Gauß
  Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss ( /ˈɡaʊs/; German: Gauß  listen (help·info), Latin: Carolus Fridericus Gauss) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physical scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.
  Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum (Latin, "the Prince of Mathematicians" or "the foremost of mathematicians") and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. He referred to mathematics as "the queen of sciences".
  Carl Friedrich Gauss was born on 30 April 1777 in Braunschweig, in the duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, now part of Lower Saxony, Germany, as the son of poor working-class parents. Indeed, his mother was illiterate and never recorded the date of his birth, remembering only that he had been born on a Wednesday, eight days before the Feast of the Ascension, which itself occurs 40 days after Easter. Gauss would later solve this puzzle for his birthdate in the context of finding the date of Easter, deriving methods to compute the date in both past and future years. He was christened and confirmed in a church near the school he attended as a child.
  
  wn.com/Carl_Friedrich_Gauß
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  Christiaan Huygens
  Christiaan Huygens, FRS (/ˈhaɪɡənz/; [ˈɦœyɣə(n)s] ( listen); 14 April 1629 – 8 July 1695) was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist and horologist. His work included early telescopic studies elucidating the nature of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan, the invention of the pendulum clock and other investigations in timekeeping, and studies of both optics and the centrifugal force.
  Huygens achieved note for his argument that light consists of waves, now known as the Huygens–Fresnel principle, which two centuries later became instrumental in the understanding of wave-particle duality. He generally receives credit for his discovery of the centrifugal force, the laws for collision of bodies, for his role in the development of modern calculus and his original observations on sound perception (see repetition pitch).
  Christiaan Huygens was born in April 1629 at The Hague, the second son of Constantijn Huygens, (1596–1687), a friend of mathematician, philosopher and minor physicistRené Descartes, and of Suzanna van Baerle (deceased 1637), whom Constantijn had married on 6 April 1627. Christiaan studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden and the College of Orange in Breda. After a stint as a diplomat, Huygens turned to science.
  
  wn.com/Christiaan_Huygens
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  Claudius Ptolemy
  Claudius Ptolemy ( /ˈtɒləmi/; Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος, Klaudios Ptolemaios; Latin: Claudius Ptolemaeus; c. AD 90 – c. AD 168), was a Greek-Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the Thebaid. This theory, proposed by Theodore Meliteniotes, could be correct, but it is late (ca. 1360) and unsupported. There is no reason to suppose that he ever lived anywhere else than Alexandria, where he died around AD 168.
  Ptolemy was the author of several scientific treatises, at least three of which were of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest (in Greek, Ἡ Μεγάλη Σύνταξις, "The Great Treatise", originally Μαθηματικὴ Σύνταξις, "Mathematical Treatise"). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise known sometimes in Greek as the Apotelesmatika (Ἀποτελεσματικά), more commonly in Greek as the Tetrabiblos (Τετράβιβλος "Four books"), and in Latin as the Quadripartitum (or four books) in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.
  
  wn.com/Claudius_Ptolemy
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  Eratosthenes
  Eratosthenes of Cyrene (Ancient Greek: Ἐρατοσθένης, IPA: [eratostʰénɛːs]; English /ɛrəˈtɒsθəniːz/; c. 276 BC – c. 195 BC) was a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, athlete, astronomer, and music theorist.
  He was the first person to use the word "geography" and invented the discipline of geography as we understand it. He invented a system of latitude and longitude.
  He was the first person to calculate the circumference of the earth by using a measuring system using stades, or the length of stadiums during that time period (with remarkable accuracy). He was the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis (also with remarkable accuracy). He may also have accurately calculated the distance from the earth to the sun and invented the leap day. He also created the first map of the world incorporating parallels and meridians within his cartographic depictions based on the available geographical knowledge of the era. In addition, Eratosthenes was the founder of scientific chronology; he endeavored to fix the dates of the chief literary and political events from the conquest of Troy.
  
  wn.com/Eratosthenes
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  Friedrich Hopfner
  Friedrich Hopfner (28 October 1881 — 5 September 1949) was an Austrian geodesist, geophysicist and planetary scientist.
  As an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire he began his scientific work at the Bureau of Meteorology. In 1921 he became Chief Astronomer at the new Geodetic Survey of Austria (Federal Office for Metrology and Survey or Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen). From 1936 to 1942 and from 1945 to 1949 he was a Professor at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and over the 1948-9 term he was the university's rector.
  He was born on 28 October 1881 in Trautenau, northern Bohemia (now Trutnov, Czech Republic). He studied mathematics, physics, geophysics and astronomy at the University of Prague and the University of Munich between 1899 and 1904. In 1905 at the Charles University in Prague he delivered his dissertation on "The average and relative distribution of temperature on the Earth's surface."
  His first job was as an assistant at the Prague Observatory, and then at the Bureaux of Meteorology in Berlin, Innsbruck and Vienna. In 1908 he transferred to the Maritime Observatory in Trieste (now the Istituto Talassografico di Trieste or ITT), then in 1912 to the Bureau of Geodesy (Gradmessungsbüro) in Vienna.
  
  wn.com/Friedrich_Hopfner
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  George Biddell Airy
  Sir George Biddell Airy PRS KCB (27 July 1801 – 2 January 1892) was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, a method of solution of two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and, in his role as Astronomer Royal, establishing Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian. His reputation has been tarnished by allegations that, through his inaction, Britain lost the opportunity of priority in the discovery of Neptune.
  Airy was born at Alnwick, one of a long line of Airys who traced their descent back to a family of the same name residing at Kentmere, in Westmorland, in the 14th century. The branch to which he belonged, having suffered in the English Civil War, moved to Lincolnshire and became farmers. Airy was educated first at elementary schools in Hereford, and afterwards at Colchester Royal Grammar School. An introverted child, Airy gained popularity with his schoolmates through his great skill in the construction of peashooters.
  
  wn.com/George_Biddell_Airy
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  George Everest
  Colonel Sir George Everest ( /ˈiːvrɨst/; 4 July 1790 – 1 December 1866) was a Welsh surveyor, geographer and Surveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843.
  Sir George was largely responsible for completing the section of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India along the meridian arc from the south of India extending north to Nepal, a distance of approximately 2,400 kilometres (1,491 mi). The survey was started by William Lambton in 1806 and lasted several decades.
  In 1865, Mount Everest was named in his honour despite his objections^{[citation needed]}. It was surveyed by his successor, Andrew Waugh.
  He was born in the Manor of Gwernvale at Crickhowell in Powys, in 1790. He was baptised at Greenwich.
  Commissioned into the Royal Artillery, in 1818, Lt Everest was appointed as assistant to Colonel William Lambton, who had started the Great Trigonometrical Survey of the sub-continent in 1806. On Lambton's death in 1823, he succeeded to the post of superintendent of the survey and in 1830 was appointed Surveyor-General of India. Everest retired in 1843 and returned to live in the United Kingdom, where he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was knighted in 1861 and in 1862 he was elected Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society. He died in London in 1866 and is buried in St Andrew's Church, Hove, near Brighton. His niece, Mary Everest, married mathematician George Boole.
  
  wn.com/George_Everest
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  Gerardus Mercator
  Gerardus Mercator^{[pronunciation?]} (born 5 March 1512 in Rupelmonde in the Hapsburg County of Flanders, Holy Roman Empire, died 2 December 1594 in Duisburg, United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Holy Roman Empire) was a cartographer. He is remembered for the Mercator projection world map, which is named after him. This proved very useful to many later navigators who could (using his map) sail across the entire ocean on approximately straight paths (called rhumb lines). He died in Duisburg.
  Mercator was born Gerard de gemor or de Cremer in the Flemish town of Rupelmonde to parents from Gangelt in the Duchy of Jülich, where he was raised. "Mercator" is the Latinized form of his name. It means "merchant". He was educated in 's-Hertogenbosch by the famous humanist Macropedius and at the University of Leuven. Despite Mercator's fame as a cartographer, his main source of income came through his craftsmanship of mathematical instruments. In Leuven, he worked with Gemma Frisius and Gaspar Myrica from 1535 to 1536 to construct a terrestrial globe, although the role of Mercator in the project was not primarily as a cartographer, but rather as a highly skilled engraver of brass plates. Mercator's own independent map-making began only when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537; this map was followed by another—a map of the world (1538) – and a map of Flanders (1540). During this period he learned Italic script because it was the most suitable type of script for copper engraving of maps. He wrote the first instruction book of Italic script published in northern Europe.
  
  wn.com/Gerardus_Mercator
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  Harold Jeffreys
  Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer. His seminal book Theory of Probability, which first appeared in 1939, played an important role in the revival of the Bayesian view of probability.
  Jeffreys was born in Fatfield, Washington, County Durham, England. He studied at Armstrong College in Newcastle upon Tyne, then part of the University of Durham, and with the University of London External Programme. He then went to St John's College, Cambridge and became a fellow in 1914. At Cambridge University he taught mathematics, then geophysics and finally became the Plumian Professor of Astronomy.
  He married another mathematician and physicist, Bertha Swirles (1903–1999), in 1940 and together they wrote Methods of Mathematical Physics.
  One of his major contributions was on the Bayesian approach to probability (also see Jeffreys prior), as well as the idea that the Earth's planetary core was liquid. He was knighted in 1953.
  
  wn.com/Harold_Jeffreys
• 
  Henri Poincaré
  Jules Henri Poincaré (29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) (French pronunciation: [ˈʒyl ɑ̃ˈʁi pwɛ̃nkaˈʁe]) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and a philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as The Last Universalist, since he excelled in all fields of the discipline as it existed during his lifetime.
  As a mathematician and physicist, he made many original fundamental contributions to pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, and celestial mechanics. He was responsible for formulating the Poincaré conjecture, which was one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics until it was solved in 2002–2003. In his research on the three-body problem, Poincaré became the first person to discover a chaotic deterministic system which laid the foundations of modern chaos theory. He is also considered to be one of the founders of the field of topology.
  Poincaré made clear importance of paying attention to the invariance of laws of physics under different transformations, and was the first to present the Lorentz transformations in their modern symmetrical form. Poincaré discovered the remaining relativistic velocity transformations and recorded them in a letter to Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz (1853–1928) in 1905. Thus he obtained perfect invariance of all of Maxwell's equations, an important step in the formulation of the theory of special relativity.
  
  wn.com/Henri_Poincaré
• 
  Hipparchus
  Hipparchus/hɪˈpɑːrkəs/, or more correctly Hipparchos (Greek: Ἵππαρχος, Hipparkhos; c. 190 BC – c. 120 BC), was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician of the Hellenistic period. He is considered the founder of trigonometry.
  Hipparchus was born in Nicaea (now Iznik, Turkey), and probably died on the island of Rhodes. He is known to have been a working astronomer at least from 162 to 127 BC. Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. He was the first whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon survive. For this he certainly made use of the observations and perhaps the mathematical techniques accumulated over centuries by the Chaldeans from Babylonia. He developed trigonometry and constructed trigonometric tables, and he solved several problems of spherical trigonometry. With his solar and lunar theories and his trigonometry, he may have been the first to develop a reliable method to predict solar eclipses. His other reputed achievements include the discovery of Earth's precession, the compilation of the first comprehensive star catalog of the western world, and possibly the invention of the astrolabe, also of the armillary sphere, which he used during the creation of much of the star catalogue. It would be three centuries before Claudius Ptolemaeus' synthesis of astronomy would supersede the work of Hipparchus; it is heavily dependent on it in many areas.
  
  wn.com/Hipparchus
• Irene Fischer
  Irene Kaminka Fischer (born July 27, 1907 in Vienna, died October 22, 2009 in Boston) was a mathematician, geodesist, National Academy of Engineering Member; Fellow International Geophysical Union, Inductee of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency Hall of Fame. Fischer became one of two internationally known women scientists in the field of geodesy during the golden age of the Mercury and Apollo moon missions. Her Mercury Datum, or Fischer Ellipsoid 1960 and 1968, as well as her work on the lunar parallax, were instrumental in conducting these missions.
  Born and educated in Vienna, Austria, she studied descriptive and projective geometry at the Technical University of Vienna and mathematics at the University of Vienna. Her teachers Moritz Schlick and Hans Hahn were among the luminaries of the Vienna Circle; and her fellow students included physicist Victor Weiskopf, sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld, and social psychologist Marie Jahoda. Her father, the Rabbi Armand/Aaron Kaminka, was head of the Maimonides Institute, and regularly led high holiday services at the famed Vienna Musikverein. He worked for the Alliance Israelite investigating pogroms in Eastern Europe and raised money in the U.S. and Western Europe to help victims.
  
  wn.com/Irene_Fischer
• John A. O'Keefe
  John Aloysius O'Keefe (1916–2000) was a planetary scientist with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1958 to 1995. He is credited with the discovery of Earth's "pear shape" using U.S. Vanguard satellite data collected in the late 1950s. He was the first to propose the idea of a scanning microscope in 1956 and he is the co-discoverer of the YORP effect (short for Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddock effect), an effect resulting from sunlight which causes a small celestial body such as an asteroid or meteor to spin up or down. O'Keefe was a practicing Roman Catholic.
  During the early Project Apollo-era, O'Keefe was one of the major leaders in developing the American lunar science program and was instrumental in securing astrogeologist Eugene Shoemaker to work with NASA in developing a geology program for the Apollo astronauts.
  Prior to the moon landings O'Keefe developed a theory that tektites, natural glass objects found in discrete strewn fields around the world, are actually volcanic ejecta from the Moon. He suggested that explosive, hydrogen-driven lunar volcanoes may be the mechanism that launched the tektites to Earth. After the moon landings his claim was apparently supported by a chemical analysis of a portion of lunar sample 12013 retrieved by Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad that showed a similar major element composition to some tektites found in Southeast Asia. Some Apollo 14 samples also had chemistries similar to tektites. However, most other lunar data strongly challenged the O'Keefe hypothesis, and almost all researchers in this field now accept that tektites are of terrestrial origin, the products of large meteorite or cometary impacts on Earth. This is supported by geochemical, isotopic and mineralogical evidence, and the fact that most tektite strewn fields can now be confidently matched to known impact craters of similar age on Earth.
  
  wn.com/John_A._O'Keefe
• Karl Ramsayer
  Karl Ramsayer (29 September 1911, Schwäbisch Gmünd – 24 December 1982, near Stuttgart) was a German geodesist and is well known as one of the most important scientists in geodetic astronomy and in electronic navigation.
  In the 1950s Ramsayer became professor at the Geodetic Institute of the University of Stuttgart. In the following years he founded the Institut für Navigation which he developed to a leading research institute in the fields of avionics. Many patents in automatic positioning methods and air guidance systems have their origin in Stuttgart research projects.
  Much of Ramsayer's research on navigation concerned dead reckoning, automatic navigation maps based on Doppler radar, and improvements in astro navigation. Long series of NATO test flights showed the advantages of combining different positioning methods (integrated navigation).^{[clarification needed]} He is the author of some hundred special articles in scientific journals and author or coauthor of some dozen research reports.
  
  wn.com/Karl_Ramsayer
• Karl-Rudolf Koch
  Karl-Rudolf Koch (born 30 July 1935 in Hilchenbach, Province of Westphalia) is a German geodesist and professor at the University of Bonn (FRG). In the global geodetic community, he is well known for his research work in geodetic statistics, particularly robust parameter estimation and in gravity field models.
  KOCH, K.R. und Y. YANG: Konfidenzbereiche und Hypothesentests für robuste Parameterschätzungen Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen, 123, pp. 20–26, 1998
  KOCH, K.R. und Y. YANG: Robust Kalman filter for rank deficient observation models Journal of Geodesy, 72, pp. 436–441, 1998
  KOCH, K.R.: Bemerkungen zu "Was ist Genauigkeit?" VR 1997, S.212, Vermessungswesen und Raumordnung, 59, S. 362-370, 1997
  KOCH, K.R.: Emeritierter Prof. Dr.-Ing., Dr.-Ing. E.h. Hellmut H. Schmid Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen, 123, 282, 1998
  KOCH, K.R.: Parameterschätzung und Hypothesentests in linearen Modellen 3. Auflage, Dümmler, pp. 381, Bonn, 1997
  KOCH, K.R: "Robuste Parameterschätzung" Allgemeine Vermessungs-Nachrichten, 103, 1-8, 1996 +Stellungnahme z.Beitr Prof.Kampmann zu Robuste P.Î (AVN 1/96) 103, p. 165-167
  
  wn.com/Karl-Rudolf_Koch
• Martin Hotine
  Brigadier Martin Hotine CMG CBE (1898–1968) was the head of the Trigonometrical and Levelling Division of the Ordnance Survey responsible for the 26 year long retriangulation of Great Britain (1936–1962) and was the first Director General of the Directorate of Overseas Surveys (1946–1985). According to Nicholas Crane (Map Man):
  Hotine was responsible for the design of the triangulation pillars constructed during the Geodetic resurvey of Britain. 6,173 of these were built. They provided a solid base for the theodolites used by the survey teams during the survey, thereby improving the accuracy of the readings obtained. They are sometimes referred to as "Hotine Pillars".
  Hotine was married to Kate Amelia Hotine (nee Pearson)(1895–1987). Nickname to family and friends was 'Ajax'
  
  wn.com/Martin_Hotine
• Mikhail Molodenskii
  Mikhail Sergeevich Molodenskii (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Молоденский, June 16 [O.S. June 3] 1909 – November 12, 1991) was a famous Soviet physical geodesist. He was once said to be "probably the only geodesist who would have deserved a Nobel prize"
  He graduated from Moscow State University (1936), since 1946 he worked for the Institute of Earth Physics (Институт Физики Земли АН СССР). He created an original theory for determining of the Earth shape and its gravitational field based on the surface measurement, built the first Soviet gravimeter, developed a theory of the nutation of Earth. He won the Stalin Prize (1946 and 1951) and the Lenin Prize (1961). His legacy includes the Molodensky transformations, which are commonly used to transform between geodetic datums.
  [he is probably the only geodesist who would have deserved a Nobel prize]
  
  
  
  wn.com/Mikhail_Molodenskii
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  Muhammad al-Idrisi
  Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani al-Sabti or simply Al Idrisi (Arabic: أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي‎; Latin: Dreses) (1099–1165 or 1166) was a Moroccan Muslim geographer, cartographer, Egyptologist and traveller who lived in Sicily, at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta then belonging to the Almoravid Empire and died in Sicily. Al Idrisi was a descendent of the Idrisids, who in turn were descendants of Hasan bin Ali, the son of Ali and the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
  Al-Idrisi traced his descent through long line of Princes, Caliphs and Sufi leaders, to The Prophet Muhammad. His immediate forebears, the Hammudids (1016–1058), were an offshoot of the Idrisids (789-985).
  Al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta, where his great-grandfather had fled after the fall of Málaga in Al-Andalus (1057). He spent much of his early life travelling through North Africa, and Spain and seems to have acquired a detail information on both regions. He visited Anatolia when he was barely 16. He is known to have studied in Córdoba, and later taught in Constantine, Algeria.
  
  wn.com/Muhammad_al-Idrisi
• 
  Pedro Nunes
  Pedro Nunes (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpedɾu ˈnunɨʃ]; Latin, Petrus Nonius), (1502, Alcácer do Sal – August 11, 1578, Coimbra) was a Portuguese mathematician, cosmographer, and professor, from a New Christian (of Jewish origin) family. Nunes, considered to be one of the greatest mathematicians of his time, is best known for his contributions in the technical field of navigation, which was crucial to the Portuguese period of discoveries. He was the first to propose the idea of a loxodrome and was also the inventor of several measuring devices, including the nonius, named after his Latin surname.
  Little is known about Nunes' early education life or family background, only that his origins are Jewish and that his grandchildren spent a few years behind bars after they were accused by the Portuguese Inquisition of professing and secretly practicing Judaism. He studied at the University of Salamanca, maybe from 1521 until 1522, and at the University of Lisbon (this University later become the University of Coimbra) where he obtained a degree in medicine in 1525. In the 16th century medicine used astrology, so he also learned astronomy and mathematics.
  
  wn.com/Pedro_Nunes
• Petr Vaníček
  Petr Vaníček (born 1935 in Sušice, Czechoslovakia, today in Czech Republic) is a Czech Canadian geodesist and theoretical geophysicist who has made important breakthroughs in theory of spectral analysis and geoid computation. He initiated the establishing of the Canadian Geophysical Union in 1974, and served as the Union's president between 1986 and 1988. He was the first chairman of the committee for Geodetic Aspects of the Law of the Sea (GALOS), founded in Edinburgh, Scotland by the International Association of Geodesy (IAG) in 1989.
  He was awarded the J. Tuzo Wilson Medal in 1996 for outstanding contributions to Canadian geophysics. He is a fellow of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, of the American Geophysical Union, and of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). He was the first Canadian awarded the Senior Distinguished Scientist Fellowship by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and was a Senior Visiting Scientist with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Over the course of his career, he taught or performed research at universities and labs across six continents, including the Royal Institute of Technology and the USGS.
  
  wn.com/Petr_Vaníček
• 
  Pierre Bouguer
  Pierre Bouguer (16 February 1698, Croisic – 15 August 1758, Paris) was a French mathematician, geophysicist, geodesist, and astronomer. He is also known as "the father of naval architecture".
  His father, Jean Bouguer, one of the best hydrographers of his time, was regius professor of hydrography at Croisic in lower Brittany, and author of a treatise on navigation. In 1713 Pierre was appointed to succeed his father as professor of hydrography. In 1727 he gained the prize given by the French Academy of Sciences for his paper On the masting of ships, beating Leonhard Euler; and two other prizes, one for his dissertation On the best method of observing the altitude of stars at sea, the other for his paper On the best method of observing the variation of the compass at sea. These were published in the Prix de l’Academie des Sciences.
  In 1729 he published Essai d'optique sur la gradation de la lumière, the object of which is to define the quantity of light lost by passing through a given extent of the atmosphere, and became the first known discoverer of what is now more commonly known as the Beer-Lambert law. He found the light of the sun to be 300 times more intense than that of the moon, and thus made some of the earliest measurements in photometry. In 1730 he was made professor of hydrography at Havre, and succeeded Pierre Louis Maupertuis as associate geometer of the Academy of Sciences. He also invented a heliometer, afterwards perfected by Joseph von Fraunhofer. He was afterwards promoted in the Academy to the place of Maupertuis, and went to reside in Paris.
  
  wn.com/Pierre_Bouguer
• 
  Pierre de Maupertuis
  Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (French pronunciation: [mopɛʁtɥi]; Saint-Malo, 17 July 1698 – Basel, 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Berlin Academy of Science, at the invitation of Frederick the Great.
  Maupertuis made an expedition to Lapland to determine the shape of the earth. He is often credited with having invented the principle of least action; a version is known as Maupertuis' principle – an integral equation that determines the path followed by a physical system. His work in natural history has its interesting points, since he touched on aspects of heredity and the struggle for life.
  Maupertuis was born at Saint-Malo, France, to a moderately wealthy family of merchant-corsairs^{[citation needed]}. He was educated in mathematics by a private tutor, and upon completing his formal education his father secured him a largely honorific cavalry commission. After three years in the cavalry, during which time he became acquainted with fashionable social and mathematical circles, he moved to Paris and began building his reputation as a mathematician and literary wit. In 1723 he was admitted to the Académie des Sciences.
  
  wn.com/Pierre_de_Maupertuis
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  Pierre-Simon Laplace
  Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (/ləˈplɑːs/; 23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827) was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825). This work translated the geometric study of classical mechanics to one based on calculus, opening up a broader range of problems. In statistics, the so-called Bayesian interpretation of probability was mainly developed by Laplace.
  Laplace formulated Laplace's equation, and pioneered the Laplace transform which appears in many branches of mathematical physics, a field that he took a leading role in forming. The Laplacian differential operator, widely used in mathematics, is also named after him. He restated and developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar system and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse.
  
  wn.com/Pierre-Simon_Laplace
• 
  Posidonius
  Posidonius (Greek: Ποσειδώνιος / Poseidonios, meaning "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (ca. 135 BCE - 51 BCE), was a Greek Stoic philosopher, politician, astronomer, geographer, historian and teacher native to Apamea, Syria. He was acclaimed as the greatest polymath of his age. None of his vast body of work can be read in its entirety today, as it exists only in fragments.
  Posidonius, nicknamed "the Athlete", was born to a Greek family in Apamea, a Hellenistic city on the river Orontes in northern Syria, and probably died in Rome or Rhodes.
  Posidonius completed his higher education in Athens, where he was a student of the aged Panaetius, the head of the Stoic school.
  He settled around 95 BCE in Rhodes, a maritime state which had a reputation for scientific research, and became a citizen.
  In Rhodes, Posidonius actively took part in political life, and his high standing is apparent from the offices he held. He attained the highest public office as one of the Prytaneis (presidents, having a six months tenure) of Rhodes. He served as an ambassador to Rome in 87 - 86 BCE, during the Marian and Sullan era.
  
  wn.com/Posidonius
• 
  Pythagoras
  Pythagoras of Samos (Ancient Greek: Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος [Πυθαγόρης in Ionian Greek] Pythagóras ho Sámios "Pythagoras the Samian", or simply Πυθαγόρας; b. about 570 – d. about 495 BC) was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him. He was born on the island of Samos, and might have travelled widely in his youth, visiting Egypt and other places seeking knowledge. Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, a Greek colony in southern Italy, and there set up a religious sect. His followers pursued the religious rites and practices developed by Pythagoras, and studied his philosophical theories. The society took an active role in the politics of Croton, but this eventually led to their downfall. The Pythagorean meeting-places were burned, and Pythagoras was forced to flee the city. He is said to have ended his days in Metapontum.
  
  wn.com/Pythagoras
• 
  Regiomontanus
  Johannes Müller von Königsberg (6 June 1436 – 6 July 1476), today best known by his Latin toponym Regiomontanus, was a German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, translator, instrument maker and Catholic bishop.
  He was born in the Franconian village of Unfinden (now part of Königsberg, Bavaria) — not in the more famous East-Prussian Königsberg.
  He was also known as Johannes der Königsberger (Johannes of Königsberg). His writings were published under the toponym Joannes de Monte Regio. The name Regiomontanus was first coined by Phillip Melanchthon in 1534, fifty-eight years after his death.
  At eleven years of age, he became a student at the university in Leipzig, Saxony. In 1451 he continued his studies at Alma Mater Rudolfina, the university in Vienna, Austria. There he became a pupil and friend of Georg von Peurbach. In 1452 he graduated BA and was awarded his “magister artium” (Master of Arts) at the age of 21 in 1457 and held lectures in optics and ancient literature.
  He continued to work with Peuerbach learning and extending the then known areas of astronomy, mathematics and instrument making until Peuerbach's death in 1461.
  
  wn.com/Regiomontanus
• 
  Tadeusz Banachiewicz
  Tadeusz Banachiewicz (13 February 1882, Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire – 17 November 1954, Kraków) was a Polish astronomer, mathematician and geodesist.
  He was educated at Warsaw University. In 1905, after the closure of the University by the Russians, he moved to Göttingen and in 1906 to the Pulkowa Observatory. He also worked at the Engel'gardt Observatory at Kazan University from 1910–1915.
  In 1919, after Poland regained her independence, Banachiewicz moved to Kraków, becoming a professor at the Jagiellonian University and the director of Kraków Observatory. He authored approximately 180 research papers and modified the method of determining parabolic orbits. In 1925, he invented a theory of "cracovians" — a special kind of matrix algebra — which brought him international recognition. This theory solved several astronomical, geodesic, mechanical and mathematical problems.^{[citation needed]}
  In 1922 he became a member of PAU (Polska Akademia Umiejętności) and from 1932 to 1938 was the vice-president of the International Astronomical Union. He was also the first President of the Polish Astronomical Society, the vice-president of the Geodesic Committee of The Baltic States and, from 1952 to his death, a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He was also the founder of the journal Acta Astronomica. He was the recipient of Doctor Honoris Causa titles from the University of Warsaw, the University of Poznań and the University of Sofia in Bulgaria.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Tadeusz_Banachiewicz
• 
  Willebrord Snellius
  Willebrord Snellius (born Willebrord Snel van Royen) (1580 – 30 October 1626, Leiden) was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician. In the west, especially the English speaking countries, his name has been attached to the law of refraction of light for several centuries, but it is now known that this law was first discovered by Ibn Sahl in 984. The same law was also investigated by Ptolemy and in the Middle Ages by Witelo, but due to lack of adequate mathematical instruments (trigonometric functions) their results were saved as tables, not functions.
  The lunar crater Snellius is named after Willebrord Snellius.
  
  Willebrord Snellius was born in Leiden, Netherlands. In 1613 he succeeded his father, Rudolph Snel van Royen (1546–1613) as professor of mathematics at the University of Leiden. In 1615 he planned and carried into practice a new method of finding the radius of the earth, by determining the distance of one point on its surface from the parallel of latitude of another, by means of triangulation. His work Eratosthenes Batavus ("The Dutch Eratosthenes"), published in 1617, describes the method and gives as the result of his operations between Alkmaar and Bergen op Zoom—two towns separated by one degree of the meridian—which he measured to be equal to 117,449 yards (107.395 km). The actual distance is approximately 111 km. Snellius was also a distinguished mathematician, producing a new method for calculating π—the first such improvement since ancient times. He rediscovered the law of refraction in 1621.
  
  wn.com/Willebrord_Snellius
• William Bowie
  William Bowie, B.S., C.E., M.A. (May 6, 1872 – August 28, 1940) was an American geodetic engineer.
  He was born at Grassland, an historic estate near Annapolis Junction, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, to Thomas John Bowie and Susanna Anderson. He was educated in public schools, at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut (B.S. 1893; M.A. 1907; Sc.D. 1919) , and Lehigh (C.E. 1895; Sc.D. 1922). He received honorary degrees (LL.D. 1936) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the meeting of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics of which he was President, and from George Washington University (Sc.D. 1937).
  In 1895 he entered the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. During World War I he served in the Corps of Engineers in the army as a major.
  He represented the United States at various international geodetic conferences and congresses. His scientific researches had to do with the theory of isostasy and its applications to dynamic and structural geology. He retired from government service at 64 in 1936.
  
  wn.com/William_Bowie

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