Dan McKenzie

Dan Peter McKenzie (born 21 February 1942) is a professor of geophysics at the University of Cambridge, and one-time head of the Bullard Laboratories of the Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences. He wrote the first paper defining the mathematical principles of plate tectonics on a sphere, and his early work on mantle convection created the modern discussion of planetary interiors.

Early life Born in Cheltenham, the son of an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, he first attended Westminster Under School and later Westminster School, London.

Education and career McKenzie attended King's College, Cambridge where he read physics, obtaining a 2:1 in his final degree.

Plate tectonics Spending time between Cambridge and a Fellowship held in Caltech, McKenzie was invited, along with Teddy Bullard, to a conference in New York which initiated his revolutionary work on plate tectonics. After listening to separate talks from Fred Vine on plate tectonics, looking at the thermal structure of oceanic plates as they formed and cooled. which employed Euler's Fixed Point Theorem, in conjunction with magnetic anomalies and earthquakes to determine a precise mathematical theory on plate tectonics. This work was published some 3–4 months after the same work had been carried out by Jason Morgan at Princeton. Allegations were subsequently made suggesting that McKenzie was at Morgan's spring AGU talk where he presented his plate tectonics work. of which eventually resulted in them both receiving Fellowships at the Royal Society.

Mantle convection and sedimentary basins McKenzie was awarded a university position and took it up in 1969. At this point he decided to move away from plate tectonics, choosing instead to focus on the behavior of fluids below the plates. He studied cellular convection and motions in the mantle whilst at the same time pursuing yet another new avenue of research; the development of sedimentary basins. It was from this work that he produced a classic paper that has been widely accepted by oil companies as the "McKenzie Model of Sedimentary Basins." A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences, Royal Society of Canada, 1980 Wollaston Medal, Geological Society of London, 1983 Rutherford Memorial Lecture, 1988 Japan Prize, with Dr W. Jason Morgan and Dr Xavier Le Pichon, 1990 Awarded a Royal Society Research Professorship, 1996 Awarded an Honorary DSc from the University of Bristol, 2000 William Bowie Medal, 2001 Crafoord Prize, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2002 Appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II, 2003 Copley Medal, 2011