(1937- ) British Tectonic Geologist
After the pioneers of plate tectonics proved that the concept actually existed in the 1950s and 1960s, it was time to show how the Earth, both current and ancient, fit into this revolutionary paradigm. John Dewey went from a respected geologist to a household name among geologists worldwide with a single scientific article: “Mountain Belts and the New Global Tectonics.” Written with J. M. Bird in 1970, it was a benchmark in this study that is still cited in scientific literature today. This initial article led to a flood of studies to place many of the mountain belts of the Earth into the plate tectonic context and fill in the various parts of the model. This research has been soundly based on field observations coupled with any supporting evidence, be it geochemical, geophysical, or paleontological. This pioneering spirit and willingness to boldly address any problem within the field has most certainly earned John Dewey the respect of the profession. He can undoubtedly be considered the “father of modern plate tectonics.”
The list of topics that John Dewey has addressed in his research reads like the chapters in a text topic on plate tectonics. He investigated continental breakup and dispersion, including triple junctions and hot spots. He investigated the ob-duction of ophiolites (pieces of ocean floor on land) during continental collisions and the complexities of the suture zones (where the old continents are stuck together) of those collisions. He investigated fracture zones (transform boundaries) on the ocean floor. He studied the distribution of relative strength profiles within the crust and upper mantle as the control on plate process and the collapse of orogens (mountain systems) as a result. He studied transpression (mixed compression) and transtension (mixed extension) in strike-slip fault zones among many other topics. Between all of these studies that defined a plate tectonic process, Dewey was constantly investigating specific areas worldwide and writing the seminal papers on the tectonics of them as well. His work has focused on the British Isles (Cale-donides), but he has done detailed studies on the Alps, the Himalayas, the Appalachians (especially Newfoundland), Turkey, the Andes, and the Caribbean. His research always seems to guide the major direction of interest in the field of tectonics and is the topic of conversation around many universities worldwide.
John Dewey was born on May 22, 1937, in London, England. He attended Bancrofts School in Woodford Green, Essex, from 1948 to 1955 before entering Queen Mary College at the University of London, England, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in geology with first class honors in 1958. He continued his graduate studies at Imperial College at the University of London where he earned his Ph.D. in geology in 1960. His first academic position was at University of Manchester, England, where he was a lecturer from 1960 to 1964. He then joined the faculty at Cambridge University, England, in 1964 where he was a Fellow at Trinity College and a Fellow and associate dean of Darwin College. In 1970, Dewey accepted a position at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. From 1980 to 1982, he was a distinguished professor at SUNY and a research professor after 1982. He became a professor and head of the department at the University of Oxford, England, in 1986. He joined the faculty at the University of California at Davis in 2000, where he remains today. During his career, he was a visiting scholar at Lamont-Do-herty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York (1967), and at University of Calgary, Canada (1979). John Dewey was married on July 4, 1961, and he has two children. He is a serious cricket player and gymnast and enjoys skiing and model railroads.
John Dewey has led a very productive career. He is an author of some 134 articles in international journals and professional volumes. Several of these papers appear in high-profile journals such as Nature and many establish new benchmarks for the state of tectonics. Dewey has received many honors and awards for his contributions to tectonics from the geological community. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded two honorary doctorates from Memorial University of Newfoundland (1995) and the National University of Ireland (1998). He received the A. Cressy Morrison Medal from the New York Academy of Sciences in 1976. In 1983, he was awarded the T. N. George Medal from the Geological Society of Glasgow, Scotland, the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London, and the Award for Excellence in Journal Design for Tectonics from the Association of American developers. Additionally, he received the Arthur Holmes Medal from the European Union of Geosciences (1993), the Wol-laston Medal from the Geological Society of London (1999), the Penrose Medal from the Geological Society of America, and the Paul Four-marier Prize and Medal from the Academie Royale de Belgique (1999), among numerous other honors.
Portrait of John Dewey
The service John Dewey has contributed to the profession is unparalleled. He is a member or fellow of 12 geological societies from all over the world. He served on numerous advisory committees, including International Geodynamics Commission (secretary, 1972-1980), International Geological Correlation Programme, numerous committees for the Natural Environment Research Council of Great Britain, and the International Lithosphere Commission, among others. He served numerous committees for the Royal Society and the Geological Society of London. All else pales, however, in comparison to his editorial work. He was founding editor and editor in chief for both Tectonics (1981-1984) and Basin Research (1989-present) and associate editor for Geology, Geological Society ofAmerica Bulletin, and Journal of Geology. He has been on the editorial board for nine journals and books. He has been an external evaluator for nine universities including Cambridge University, Oxford University, and University of Leeds.
