John Tuzo Wilson

He was born in Ottawa on October 24, 1908, the son of John Armistead Wilson CBE, and his wife, Henrietta Tuzo.[4] Wilson's father was of Scottish descent and his mother was a third-generation Canadian of French descent.

He became one of the first people in Canada to receive a degree in geophysics, graduating from Trinity College at the University of Toronto in 1930.[5] He obtained a second (BA) degree from St. John's College, Cambridge in 1932 and then a doctorate (ScD). He then pursued further graduate studies as Princeton University, where he received a Ph.D. in geology in 1936 after completing a doctoral dissertation titled "The Geology of the Mill creek - Stillwater Area, Montana."[6]

After completing his studies in 1936, Wilson joined the Canadian Geological Survey as a government geologist. This was interrupted by the Second World War during which he served with the Royal Canadian Engineers, serving in Europe and reaching the rank of Colonel. He was involved in Operation Musk Ox.[7]

After the war, in 1946, he was appointed the first Professor of Geophysics at Toronto University. In 1967 he became Principal of the university. In 1974 he left to become the Director General of the Ontario Science Centre. In 1983 he became Chancellor of York University, Toronto.

He retired in 1986 and died in Toronto on April 15, 1993.

In 1938 he married Isabel Jean Dickson.

John Tuzo Wilson was president (1957–1960) of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). In 1969, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was promoted to the rank of Companion of that order in 1974.[8] Wilson was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences in 1975.[9] In 1978, he was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London and a Gold Medal by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He also served as honorary vice president of the RCGS.[10] He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Canada, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[11] He was the principal of Erindale College at the University of Toronto and was the host of the television series The Planet of Man. He was elected president-elect (1978–1980) and president (1980–1982) of the American Geophysical Union. He also served as the director general of the Ontario Science Centre from 1974 to 1985. He and his plate tectonic theory are commemorated on the grounds of the Centre by a giant "immovable" spike indicating the amount of continental drift since Wilson's birth.

The John Tuzo Wilson Medal of the Canadian Geophysical Union recognizes achievements in geophysics. He is also commemorated by a named memorial professorship and an eponymous annual public lecture delivered at the University of Toronto.

He is one of the 2016 inductees into Legends Row: Mississauga Walk of Fame.[12]

Wilson was an avid traveller and took a large number of photographs during his travels to many destinations, including European countries, parts of the then USSR, China, the southern Pacific, Africa, and to both polar regions. Although many of his photos are geological—details of rocks and their structures or panoramas of large formations—the bulk of his photos are of the places, activities and people that he saw on his travels: landscapes, city views, monuments, sites, instruments, vehicles, flora and fauna, occupations and people.

• One Chinese Moon (1959)
• Wilson, Tuzo (July 14, 1962). "Cabot Fault, An Appalachian Equivalent of the San Andreas and Great Glen Faults and some Implications for Continental Displacement". Nature. 195 (4837): 135–138. Bibcode:1962Natur.195..135W. doi:10.1038/195135a0.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (February 9, 1963). "Evidence from Islands on the Spreading of Ocean Floors". Nature. 197 (4867): 536–538. Bibcode:1963Natur.197..536W. doi:10.1038/197536a0.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (1963). "A Possible Origin of the Hawaiian Islands" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Physics. 41 (6): 863–870. Bibcode:1963CaJPh..41..863W. doi:10.1139/p63-094.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (July 24, 1965). "A new Class of Faults and their Bearing on Continental Drift". Nature. 207 (4995): 343–347. Bibcode:1965Natur.207..343W. doi:10.1038/207343a0.
• Vine, F. J.; Wilson, J. Tuzo (October 22, 1965). "Magnetic Anomalies over a Young Oceanic Ridge off Vancouver Island". Science. 150 (3695): 485–9. Bibcode:1965Sci...150..485V. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.473.7395. doi:10.1126/science.150.3695.485. PMID 17842754.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (August 13, 1966). "Did the Atlantic close and then re-open?". Nature. 211 (5050): 676–681. Bibcode:1966Natur.211..676W. doi:10.1038/211676a0.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (1966). "Are the structures of the Caribbean and Scotia arc regions analogous to ice rafting?". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 1 (5): 335–338. Bibcode:1966E&PSL...1..335T. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(66)90019-7.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (December 1968). "A Revolution in Earth Science". Geotimes. Washington DC. 13 (10): 10–16.
• Wilson, J. Tuzo (1971). "Du Toit, Alexander Logie". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 4. pp. 261–263.

• List of geophysicists
• Science and technology in Canada

• "J. Tuzo Wilson". GSA Today, Rock Stars. September 2001. Retrieved October 14, 2013.

• West, Gordon F.; Farquhar, Ron M.; Garland, George D.; Halls, Henry C.; Morley, Lawrence W.; Russell, R. Don (January 2014). "John Tuzo Wilson: a man who moved mountains". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 51 (3): xvii–xxxi. Bibcode:2014CaJES..51D..17W. doi:10.1139/cjes-2013-0175.
• The life of John Tuzo Wilson, history pages, Department of Physics, University of Toronto.
• The Tuzo Wilson Lecture, an annual public lecture given at the University of Toronto.
• The J. Tuzo Wilson Professorship, a named memorial professorship at the University of Toronto.
• Travel Photographs of J. Tuzo Wilson
• John Tuzo Wilson archival papers held at the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services