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James Heirtzler "Days of Discovery"

James Ransom Heirtzler was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on September 16, 1925.

During the World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy in the tropical and western Pacific.

He graduated from Louisiana State University in 1948 and from New York University, obtaining a Ph.D. in Physics in 1953. The same year he was appointed Assistant Professor at the American University in Beirut,   where he stayed until 1956, then he became a senior scientist  at General Dynamic Corporation where he studied  geomagnetic field fluctuations.

Since 1960 he  was at Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Observatory. He also served as the director of Columbia’s Hudson Laboratory during 1967 -1969 before accepting a position  as the Chair of the department of Geology and Geophysics at Woods Hole Oceanographic Instruction (WHOI) in 1969.

At WHOI one of his projects was the French American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study, where with Robert Ballard and Xavier Le Pichon they explored the axis of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge south of the Azores Island with the deep submersible ALVIN.

He also worked with Xavier Le Pichon and Gregory Baron on the classic JGR paper: “Magnetic anomalies over the Reykjanes Ridge” and was one of the authors of the classic series of four JGR papers in the March 15, 1968.

From 1986-1991 he was Head, Geology and Geomagnetic Branch at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, then stuff scientist until  retiring in 2004.

Dr. Heirtzler has authored or coauthored 168 scientific articles or books and produced one popular scientific film. He was a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America and received special awards or recognition from them. He led scientific cruises in all the oceans of the world except the Sea of Japan and had expeditions in both Polar Regions.

He has two Antarctic features named for him “Heirtzler Ice Piedmond” in Antarctic Peninsula and  “ Heirtzler  Fracture Zone”, 1500 km Fracture Zone in South Pacific.

In 2016 James Heirtzler wrote and published a book titled “Days of Discovery” where he described his life adventures. It is available on Amazon

James Ransom Heirtzler passed away on July 15 2022 at age 96 and is buried in Washington DC in Rock Creek Cemetery.