Vening Meinesz
Research School of Geodynamics

VMSG Medal

Vening Meinesz was professor in Geophysics and Geodesy/Cartography at Utrecht University and Delft University of Technology respectively. He was a pioneer of submarine gravity measurements and devised a gravity measuring instrument for use on unstable platforms. He modified it for use in submarines to enable gravity surveys of the ocean floor, and made the first marine gravity determinations in the Pacific in 1923. His later voyages led him to deduce the presence of subduction zones, where compressive down-buckling of oceanic crust occurs. Prof. Vening Meinesz is considered as a - if not the - founding father of Geodynamics.
(Click for biography in Dutch)

Each year at VMSG's annual symposium, the VMSG Medal - with the portrait of Professor Vening Meinesz (see pictures) - is presented to a distinguished scientist, who has contributed very significantly to the field of geodynamics. This scientist will be invited to present the VMSG Lecture at the symposium. In the past years the VMSG Medal has been presented to the following scientists:

2007 - Professor Christopher Beaumont Dalhousie University, Dept. of Oceanography, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada Lecture: The Himalayan-Tibetan system: Models of long-term lithosphere-mantle interactions and the short-term tectonic response to variable denudation 2006 - Professor dr. Shun-ichiro Karato Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, U.S.A. Lecture: Mapping water content in the Earth's Mantle 2005 - Professor dr. Anny Cazenave Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales LEGOS-CNES, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, France. Lecture: Sea level and land hydrology using space techniques - altimetry, GRACE, etc. 2004 - Professor dr. Jeroen Tromp Division of Geological & Planetary sciences and Seismological laboratory, CalTech, Pasadena, U.S.A. Lecture: Seismic tomography, adjoint methods, time reversal, and banana-donut kernels 2003 - Professor Dennis V. Kent Dept. of Geological Sciences, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, U.S.A. Lecture: The Great Rift Valleys of Pangea: Rain Gauges on a Drifting Supercontinent 2002 - Dr. David E. Smith Laboratory of Terrestrial Physics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S.A. Lecture: The gravity field and topography of Mars and the seasonal exchange of volatiles between the atmosphere and the surface 2001 - Professor Haraldur Sigurdsson University of Rhode Island, U.S.A. Lecture: Two defining events in the Indonesian volcanic arc: Tambora 1815 and Krakatau 1883 2000 - Professor Adolphe Nicolas Université de Montpellier II, France Lecture: Ophiolites and ocean floor spreading 1999 - Professor Peter Molnar Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, U.S.A. Lecture: Geodetic and seismological observations from New Zealand implying that mantle lithosphere beneath continents deforms by penetrative shear, not by slip alon narrow fault zones.