Albrecht Penck

Albrecht Penck
Born 25 September 1858 (1858-09-25)
Reudnitz, Saxony
Died March 7, 1945(1945-03-07) (aged 86)
Residence Austria-Hungary
Fields Geomorphology, Quaternary science, Climatology
Institutions University of Vienna
Harvard University
Humboldt University
Alma mater University of Leipzig
University of Vienna
Doctoral advisor Eduard Suess
Influences Eduard Suess[1]
Walther Penck[2]
Influenced Walther Penck[3]
Notable awards Charles P. Daly Medal (1914)
Vega Medal (1923)

Albrecht Penck (September 25, 1858 March 7, 1945), was a German geographer and geologist and the father of Walther Penck.

Biography

Born in Reudnitz near Leipzig, Penck became a university professor in Vienna from 1885 to 1906, and in Berlin from 1906 to 1927. There he was also the director of the "Institute and Museum for Oceanography" by 1918. He dedicated himself to geomorphology and climatology and raised the international profile of the "Vienna School of physical geography".

With Eduard Bruckner, he was co-author of Die Alpen im Eiszeitalter, a work in which the two scientists identified the four ice ages of the European Pleistocene (Gunz, Mindel, Riss, Würm); these being named after the river valleys that were the first indication of each glaciation.[4]

Since 1886, he was married to the sister of the successful Bavarian regional writer Ludwig Ganghofer. In 1945, Penck died in Prague. In memory of Penck, the painter and sculptor Ralf Winkler adopted the nom de plume A. R. Penck in 1966.

Albrecht Penck was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1905 and awarded the Founder's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1914.[5]

Legacy

The glacier of Penckbreen in Wedel Jarlsberg Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard is named after him.[6] Since 1858 the "Albrecht-Penck-Medaille" is awarded by the Deutsche Quartärvereinigung for accomplishments associated with Quaternary science.[7]

Works

Further reading

Citations

  1. Chorley et al. 1963
  2. Chorley et al. 2005, p. 589
  3. Chorley et al. 2005, p. 614
  4. A to Z of Marine Scientists by Barbara Charton
  5. "List of Past Gold Medal Winners" (PDF). Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  6. "Penckbreen (Svalbard)". Norwegian Polar Institute. Retrieved 4 March 2015.
  7. Penck, Friedrich Karl Albrecht Deutsche Biographie
  8. Google Books Atlas der Österreichischen Alpenseen
  9. Great maps. [S.l.]: Dk Publishing. 2014. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-4654-2463-1.

References

  • Chorley, Richard J. (1963), "Diastrophic Background to Twentieth-Century Geomorphological Thought", Geological Society of America Bulletin 74 (8): 953–970, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1963)74[953:dbttgt]2.0.co;2 
  • Chorley, Richard J.; Beckinsale, Robert P.; Dunn, Antony J. (2005) [1973]. "Chapter Twenty-Two". The History of the Study of Landforms. Volume Two. Taylor & Francis e-Library. 


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