David John Stevenson | |
---|---|
Born | |
Alma mater | Victoria University (B.S., 1971) (M.S., 1972) (D.Sc) Cornell University (PhD, 1976) |
Awards | H. C. Urey Prize (1984) Whipple Award (1994) Harry H. Hess Medal (1998) Richard P. Feynman Prize (2001) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Planetary Science Earth Science Astrophysics Geophysics |
Institutions | Caltech |
Doctoral advisor | Edwin Salpeter |
David John Stevenson (born 2 September 1948) is a professor of planetary science at Caltech. Originally from New Zealand, he received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in physics, where he proposed a model for the interior of Jupiter. He is well known for applying fluid mechanics and magnetohydrodynamics to understand the internal structure and evolution of planets and moons.
Stevenson's tongue-in-cheek idea about sending a probe into the earth includes the use of nuclear weapons to crack the Earth's crust, simultaneously melting and filling the crack with molten iron containing a probe. The iron, by the action of its weight, will propagate a crack into the mantle and would subsequently sink and reach the Earth's core in weeks. Communication with the probe would be achieved with modulated acoustic waves.[1][2] This idea was used in the book Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception.
In 1984, he received the H. C. Urey Prize awarded by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society.
Stevenson is a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.[3]
Minor planet 5211 Stevenson is named in his honor.[4]