![]() ![]() I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to be so involved in constructing the theory. This was a special time in the history of the Earth sciences, which has not been repeated. I went from being an unknown postdoc who was younger than most US graduate students, to someone who was invited as a guest speaker, with all fares paid, to major international conferences. Frankel (2012) has now published a detailed account of the relevant events, which changed my career almost overnight. Though ours was the first paper on this subject to be published, shortly before this happened I discovered that Jason Morgan had priority and I tried (unsuccessfully) to delay its publication. I wrote and published the first paper on the subject with Bob Parker ( McKenzie & Parker 1967) fifty years ago, during my first year as a postdoc when I was twenty-five. I have written elsewhere ( McKenzie 2001) about my experience of being involved in the construction of the theory of plate tectonics at the start of my career. The second, from the Royal Society of London, was to write something to save whoever writes my obituary from having to do a lot of work, a request which made me feel very old. The first, from Annual Reviews, was to write an account of my career. ![]() ![]() Unlike most papers I have written this one results from two unusual requests. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |