William Walden Rubey

William Walden Rubey ( born December 19, 1898 in Moberly, Missouri, † April 12, 1974 in Santa Monica, California ) was an American geologist.

Rubey attended the University of Missouri, where he graduated in 1920 with the degree of Baccalaureus Artium. In the same year he married Susan Elsie Manovill and joined the United States Geological Survey (USGS ) at. He completed his studies at Johns Hopkins University and Yale University.

During World War II he served as a scientific liaison officer in the U.S. Army for the Geological Survey. Between 1949 and 1950 he was president of the Geological Society of America, and 1951-1954 chairman of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1960 he was appointed by the President of the United States to serve in the National Science Foundation. In the same year he was made a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles ( UCLA), where he would remain until 1966 and where he should be called back again and again in the following years. He also served in other meritorious positions and offices.

After retiring from the USGS in 1968, he joined the Lunar Science Institute and was involved in there until 1971 in the scientific investigation of lunar rock samples obtained during the Apollo program.

Rubey died of cancer. During his career, he provided many and widespread contributions to geology, including studies on the hydrology of rivers, on the geology of western Wyoming, the energy of seismic waves, the formation of mountains by thrust faults, the growth of continents, the origin of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans and to the development of Earth-like planets.

Awards and Honors

• Member of the National Academy of Sciences
• National Medal of Science, 1965.
• Penrose Medal of the Geological Society of America, 1963.
• Four academic honorary degrees, including three honorary doctorates
• Dorsa Rubey, a mountain ridge on the Moon is named after him.