Brian Kennett
Australian seismologist
About Brian Kennett
Born 1948. Brian Kennett is a seismologist.
Brian Leslie Norman Kennett (born 7 May 1948 in Croydon, Surrey, UK ) is a British mathematical physicist and seismologist. He is now a professor emeritus at the Australian National University.
Education and career Kennett graduated in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge with a first class bachelor's degree in 1969 and then took the Mathematical Tripos Part III achieving Honours with Distinction in 1970. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical seismology from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 1973. He was a Research Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1972 to 1976. As a postdoc, he was at the University of California, San Diego from 1974 to 1975, before returning in 1975 to the University of Cambridge, where he was a lecturer until he moved to Australia. In 1984, Kennett joined the Research School of Earth Sciences of the Australian National University (ANU) where he established a strong observational and theoretical program in seismology. He was a visiting scientist at, among other places, the University of Tokyo in 2002 and LMU Munich in 2009. From 2006 to 2010, he was director of the Research School of Earth Sciences of the ANU. His theoretical work on the form of seismograms and their application (e.g., seismic tomography) has contributed to the study of the Earth's mantle, particularly in Australia. He has developed comprehensive models of propagation velocities of seismic waves that serve as a basis for determining the epicenter of an earthquake, including the model and the model. 1981 Adams Prize of the University of Cambridge and St John's College, Cambridge 1994 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2004 Humboldt Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2005 Jaeger Medal of the Australian Academy of Science 2005 Fellow of Royal Society 2006 Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London 2007 Beno Gutenberg Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) 2008 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for Geophysics 2011 Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture of the Australian Academy of Science 2017 Inge Lehmann Medal of the American Geophysical Union with Hans-Peter Bunge:
with Erdinç Saygin, Tanya Fomin, and Richard Blewett:
Don’t just read it —
keep it.
Full-length biographies made to live with: read them, listen on the way to work, watch them tonight.
- E-book
- Audio
- Video
Instant download · yours to keep · every purchase keeps this site free
Important facts
People in Brian Kennett's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Brian Kennett's
Frequently asked questions
Who is Brian Kennett?
Australian seismologist
When was Brian Kennett born?
Brian Kennett was born on 7 May 1948.
What is Brian Kennett's occupation?
Brian Kennett is a seismologist.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Brian Kennett. https://biography.guide/brian-kennett/
MLA: "Brian Kennett." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/brian-kennett/.
Chicago: "Brian Kennett." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/brian-kennett/.
Data last updated: 2026-09-20 · Spot an error? Report a correction.
Page generated 2026-09-27 05:10 UTC