(1905-1996) German Paleontologist
Curt Teichert is an example of the quintessential international geologist. He held faculty positions with seven universities on three continents and governmental positions in Denmark, Australia, and the United States. His expertise was in the study of cephalopods but he extended his areas of interest into biostratigraphy, plate tectonics, and even energy and mining. To these ends, he literally traveled the world (every continent except Antarctica) to conduct research.
His early work on the morphology and evolution of cephalopods was done in conjunction with research on biostratigraphy and paleoenvi-ronmental analysis of the rocks in which the fossils were found. His paper, “Main Features of Cephalopod Evolution,” is a summary of his paleontologic work. This research was done in such diverse areas (Canada, Greenland, Australia, etc.) that it began to have implications for plate correlations. His publication, Stratigraphy of Western Australia, exemplifies his long-distance strati-graphic correlations. Of course, his early work was before plate tectonics and he was instrumental in the geosynclinal theory. However, his career spanned the acceptance of the plate tectonic paradigm and he contributed there as well. Te-ichert’s vast travels and observations made him invaluable to regional stratigraphic projects, many of which were through his efforts. Perhaps the best known of these efforts was through a project sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development and carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey in Quetta, Pakistan. He trained numerous Pakistani geologists in stratigraphy, helped establish a National Stratigraphic Committee and helped establish a program of stratigraphic correlation among Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey as part of the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). He contributed directly to this effort by performing an inch-by-inch analysis of the Permian-Triassic sequence in the Salt Range, a fundamental boundary in Earth history by virtue of the greatest extinction event ever.
Even this description of his varied history does not fully portray his vast experiences. For example, he studied the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and other coral reefs in the Indian Ocean as described in his paper, “Cold and Deep-Water Coral Banks.” He studied the fauna across the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary in Northern China. He studied the Devonian stratigraphy and biostratigraphy of Arizona. He studied the Cambrian to Holocene stratigraphy of Australia. Even these research experiences do not cover his work on fuels and energy. It is through this vast experience that Teichert was able to help guide some of the fundamental theories on evolution, Earth history, and plate reconstructions.
Curt Teichert was born on May 8, 1905, in Konigsberg, East Prussia (Germany). He studied at universities in Munich, Freiburg, and Konigsberg, ultimately receiving a Ph.D. degree from Al-bertus University in Konigsberg in 1928. That year, he married Gertrud Kaufman, the daughter of a physics professor at Konigsberg. He accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Freiburg. In 1930, he received a Rockefeller Foundation award for paleontologic studies in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Albany, New York. This international exposure led to a position as geologist on a Danish expedition to Greenland in 1931-1932. When Teichert returned to Germany, he found that the political conditions had so deteriorated that he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he received a small stipend as a research paleontologist at the university there. By 1937, the situation in Europe was far worse. Teichert applied for and received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation that made it possible for him to obtain a position as research lecturer at the University of Western Australia in Perth. In 1945, he accepted a position as assistant chief geologist in the Department of Mines for Victoria, Australia, but moved to the University of Melbourne as a senior lecturer in 1947. In 1952, Teichert began his North American career as a professor at the New Mexico School of Mines in Socorro. By 1954, he moved yet again to the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, Colorado, to organize and direct a Fuels Geology Laboratory. Te-ichert left the U.S. Geological Survey in 1964 to return to academia as a Regents Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas, where he remained until his retirement in 1977. He then moved to New York where he was an adjunct professor at the University of Rochester, where he remained until 1995. His wife Gertrude died in 1993. Teichert moved to Arlington, Virginia, in 1995 and died on May 10, 1996.
Curt Teichert led a very productive career. He was an author of some 325 scientific articles in international journals, professional volumes, and governmental reports. Several of these are seminal papers on cephalopods and biostratigraphy. He was also an editor of 13 professional volumes, including seven volumes of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, symposium volumes for the International Geological Congress and a Geological Society of America volume on the paleontology of China. In recognition of his research contributions to geology, Teichert received several honors and awards. He received the David Syme Prize from the University of Melbourne, the Raymond C. Moore Medal from the Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, and the Paleontological Society Medal.
Teichert performed excellent service to the profession and the public. In addition to numerous committees, he served as president of the Paleontological Society (1971-1972). He served on many committees and as president of the International Paleontologic Association (1976-1980). He served on numerous committees and panels for the Geological Society of America and the International Geological Congress. He was also a founder of the Geological Society of Australia. He served in numerous editorial roles with the Geological Society of America Bulletin and the Journal of Paleontology, among others.
