Richard G. Gordon

Richard G. Gordon (born 1953) is an American geophysicist, known for his research on global tectonics, including global plate motions and palaeomagnetism. He is noteworthy for leading two global plate motion projects: NUVEL (Northwestern University Velocity) and MORVEL (Mid-Ocean Ridge Velocity). In the geosciences, NUVEL and MORVEL are standard models for global plate motions. He graduated in 1975 from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a B.A. in geophysics. At Stanford University he graduated in geophysics with an M.S. in 1977 with a Ph.D. in 1979. His Ph.D. thesis was supervised by Allan V. Cox. For the academic year 1978–1979 Seth Stein was a postdoc at Stanford University. Stein and Gordon began a collaboration on global plate motions — their collaboration lasted over a number of years. In 1979 Stein joined the faculty of geological sciences of Northwestern University. After a postdoctoral year of teaching and research at Stanford, Gordon also joined Northwestern University faculty of geological sciences. He spent 15 years on Northwestern's faculty. and Donald Argus (Ph.D. 1990) at Northwestern University were eventually elected Fellows of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) In 1995 Gordon joined the faculty of Rice University, In 2020 he gave a lecture at Beijing's China University of Geosciences (CUG).

Gordon's research on global tectonics, tectonophysics, and paleomagnetism has earned him an international reputation. and also received the AGU's James B. Macelwane Medal. In 1998 he gave the AGU's Birch Lecture. In 2002 he received the Arthur L. Day Medal from the Geological Society of America (GSA). In 2019 Gordon was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2023 he was awarded the Stephan Mueller Medal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).

Selected publications