Deceased Academicians
- Biography
Summary of scientific research
With A.C. Benson, A.F. Moore and D.H. Griffiths, I determined the vertical gradient of the main geomagnetic field by experiments in deep mines and, with F.J. Lowes, modelled the geomagnetic secular variation by dipoles (representing current loops) within the core: early evidence for the dynamo theory of the geomagnetic field.
With P.M.S. Blackett I became interested in paleomagnetism and with J. Hospers, E. Irving and K.M. Creer studied the remanent magnetization of igneous and sedimentary rocks from Europe, finding early evidence for dipole reversals and for polar wandering. I found the polar wandering curve for N. America west of the European one. Thus palaeomagnetism became the first quantitative evidence for continental drift.
With D.C. Tozer I became interested in solid state physics applied to the Earth, e.g. semiconduction in minerals explained electrical conductivity variation in the Earth's mantle. I discussed the modifications to the then accepted model of the Earth's mantle to accommodate continental drift: solid state creep below the lithosphere allowing convection currents in the Earth's mantle, which moved the plates. But the discovery of the nonhydrostatic long wave length anomalies in the Earth's gravity field (the geoid) was widely accepted as proof of the finite strength of the mantle. I explained it quantitatively by solid state convection, arguing that the convection pattern could be determined from the geoid. I similarly interpreted the nonhydrostatic second harmonic in the lunar gravity field (the Moon's bulge) by a 2-cell convection pattern and inferred the existence of an iron core for the first time.
With D.W. Collinson and A. Stephenson I explained the remanent magnetization of the returned Apollo samples by the theory that the early moon had a dipole magnetic field generated by a dynamo process in this core, disappearing after 3.2 Ga. The high field strength determined from palaeointensity measurements at 4 Ga poses a problem for dynamo theory and with W.F. and L.M. Libby I speculated on possible heat sources in the early Moon.
From the palaeomagnetic directions, I showed that successive reorientations of the Moon with respect to its rotation axis occurred due to the creation of the multi-ring impact basins. I also inferred that the Moon had a primeval satellite system. I have studied the Earth's rotation over geological time, making use of daily, monthly and annual growth rings in corals and other fossils. The irregular fluctuations in the length of the day and the excitations in the Chandler Wobble, I attributed to the core-mantle electromagnetic coupling. These suggested remarkably short term phenomena in the geomagnetic field: the discovery of the geomagnetic jerk of 1969 establishes their reality.
Deceased Academicians | Alphabetical Order
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Emil Abderhalden
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Anatole Abragam
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Anselmo M. Albareda
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José M. Albareda Herrera
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Ugo Amaldi
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Christian B. Anfinsen
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Sir Edward Victor Appleton
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Giuseppe Armellini
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Charles Eugène Barrois
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John David Barrow
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Gary Stanley Becker
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Daniel Adzei Bekoe
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Paul Berg
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Sune Bergström
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Enrico Berti
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Charles Herbert Best
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Emilio Bianchi
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George David Birkhoff
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Gaetano Bisleti
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Vilhelm Bjerknes
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André Blanc-Lapierre
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Günter Blobel
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Aage Bohr
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Niels Henrik David Bohr
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Marcello Boldrini
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Giovanni Battista Bonino
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Karol Borsuk
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Filippo Bottazzi
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Leonard E. Boyle
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Edouard Branly
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Hermann A. Brück
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Keith Edward Bullen
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Frederik J.J. Buytendijk
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Nicola Cabibbo
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Constantin Caratheodory
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Antonio Cardoso Fontes
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Alexis Carrel
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Sir Aldo Castellani
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Luigi Luca Cavalli Sforza
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Sir James Chadwick
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Carlos Chagas Filho
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Te-Tzu Chang
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Georges Chaudron
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Ludovico Chigi della Rovere
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Amleto Giovanni Cicognani
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Bernardo Maria Colombo
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Giuseppe Colombo
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Gustavo Colonnetti
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Arthur William Conway
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Edward Joseph Conway
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Yves Coppens
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Georges M.M. Cottier, OP
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George V. Coyne, SJ
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Otto Detlev Creutzfeldt
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Gaetano Arturo Crocco
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Alistair Cameron Crombie
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Héctor Croxatto
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Paul J. Crutzen
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Eduardo Cruz-Coke
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Lucien Cuenot
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Giotto Dainelli
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Giorgio Dal Piaz
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Nicola Dallaporta
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Renato Dardozzi
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Antonio de Almeida
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Dante De Blasi
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Louis de Broglie
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Aloysio de Castro
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Christian de Duve
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Filippo De Filippi
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Ennio De Giorgi
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George Charles de Hevesy
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Charles de la Vallée-Poussin
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Pietro De Sanctis
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Pieter Josef William Debye
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Enrico di Rovasenda, OP
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Paul Adrian Maurice Dirac
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Johanna Döbereiner
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Edward Adelbert Doisy
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Sir John Carew Eccles
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Manfred Eigen
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Albert Eschenmoser
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Pierre Fauvel
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Fritz Feigl
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Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher
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Sir Alexander Fleming
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Kenichi Fukui
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Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi
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Julio César Garcia Otero
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José García-Siñeriz
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Percy C.C. Garnham
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Alois Gatterer, SJ
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Agostino Gemelli
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Wolfgang Gentner
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Paul Germain
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Ernesto Gherzi
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Alessandro Ghigi
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Giordano Giacomello
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Gustave Gilson
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Francesco Giordani
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Giovanni Giorgi
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Martino Giusti
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Emil Godlewski
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Giuseppe Gola
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Victor Grégoire
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Camillo Guidi
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Paul Guthnick
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Otto Hahn
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Stephen W. Hawking
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Werner Karl Heisenberg
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Veikko Heiskanen
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Gerhard Herzberg
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Victor Francis Hess
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Walter Rudolf Hess
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Corneille Jean François Heymans
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Raymond Hide
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Sir Cyril Hinshelwood
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Alan Lloyd Hodgkin
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Sven Hörstadius
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Bernardo A. Houssay
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Alberto Hurtado
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Stanley L. Jaki, OSB
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Paul A.J. Janssen
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Georges Joachimoglu
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Gaston Maurice Julia
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Joseph Junkes, SJ
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Fotis C. Kafatos
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Theodore von Karman
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Wilhelmus H. Keesom
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Vladimir I. Keilis-Borok
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Har Gobind Khorana
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Thomas Adeoye Lambo
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Herbert Sidney Langfeld
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Max von Laue
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Jean Lecomte
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Joshua Lederberg
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Jérôme Lejeune
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Luis F. Leloir
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Georges Lemaître
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Pierre R. Lépine
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Giuseppe Lepri
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Louis Leprince-Ringuet
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Tullio Levi-Civita
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Rita Levi-Montalcini
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André Lichnerowicz
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Albert William Liley
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Jacques-Louis Lions
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Stanisław Łojasiewicz
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Luigi Lombardi
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Manuel Lora-Tamayo
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Paolo Luigioni
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Fedor Lynen
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Luigi Maglione
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Félix Malu wa Kalenga
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Yuri I. Manin
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Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani
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Guglielmo Marconi
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Giovanni Battista Marini-Bettòlo
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Domenico Marotta
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Carlo Maria Martini
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James Robert McConnell
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Antonio Mendes Corrêa
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M.G.K. Menon
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Angelo Mercati
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Josef Metzler, OMI
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Albert Michotte
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Robert Millikan
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Beatrice Mintz
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Sanichiro Mizushima
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Rudolf Mössbauer
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Mario Molina
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Thomas Morgan
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William Morgan
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Giuseppe Moruzzi
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Marcos Moshinsky
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Joseph Edward Murray
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Paul Niehans
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Marshall W. Nirenberg
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Umberto Nobile
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Sergey P. Novikov
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Adriaan Noyons
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Severo Ochoa
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Daniel J.K. O'Connell, SJ
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Minoru Oda
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Thomas R. Odhiambo
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Czesław Olech
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Jan Hendrik Oort
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Eugenio Pacelli
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George E. Palade
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Modesto Panetti
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Nicola Parravano
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Pio Paschini
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Crodowaldo Pavan
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Antonio Pensa
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Max F. Perutz
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Ernst Petritsch
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Emile Picard
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Mauro Picone
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Umberto Pierantoni
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Carlo Pietrangeli
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Enrico Pistolesi
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Giuseppe Pittau, SJ
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Giuseppe Pizzardo
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Max Planck
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Cyril A. Ponnamperuma
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George Porter
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Vladimir Prelog
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Frank Press
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Bernard Pullman
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Giampietro Puppi
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Gaetano Quagliariello
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Alfons Raes, SJ
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Sir C.V. Raman
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Silvio Ranzi
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Franco Rasetti
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Joseph Ratzinger
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Alexander Rich
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Marcel Roche
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Ignacio Rodríguez-Iturbe
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Pietro Rondoni
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Vera C. Rubin
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Stanley K. Runcorn
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Ernest Rutherford
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Leopold Ruzicka
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Sir Martin Ryle
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Abdus Salam
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Pietro Salviucci
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Manuel Sandoval Vallarta
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Wilhelm Schmidt, SVD
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Erwin Schrödinger
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Michael Schulien, SVD
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Beniamino Segre
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Michael Sela
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Francesco Severi
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Sir Charles Sherrington
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Salimuzzaman Siddiqui
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Kai M.B. Siegbahn
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Wacław Sierpiński
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Filippo Silvestri
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Maxine F. Singer
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Carlo Somigliana
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Sir Richard Southwood
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George Speri Sperti
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Roger W. Sperry
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Johan W.J.A. Stein, SJ
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Alfons Maria Stickler, SDB
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Robert Stoneley
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Bengt Strömgren
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Govind Swarup
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Andrzej Szczeklik
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Albert Szent-Györgyi
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János Szentágothai
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Domenico Tardini
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Sir Hugh Stott Taylor
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Walter E. Thirring
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Arne W.K. Tiselius
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Eugène Tisserant
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Leonida Tonelli
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Antonio Renato Toniolo
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Charles Hard Townes
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Patrick Treanor, SJ
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Armin von Tschermak-Seysenegg
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Hans Tuppy
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Alfred R.J.P. Ubbelohde
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Hamao Umezawa
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Alfred Ursprung
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Giancarlo Vallauri
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Vittorio Valletta
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Felix Andries Vening Meinesz
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Francesco Vercelli
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Artturi Ilmari Virtanen
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Vito Volterra
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Victor F. Weisskopf
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Hermann Weyl
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Robert Joseph White
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Sir Edmund T. Whittaker
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Karel Frantisek Wiesner
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Hideki Yukawa
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Pieter Zeeman
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Ahmed H. Zewail