Alfred Wegener

Alfred Lothar Wegener (Berlin, November 1, 1880 – Greenland, November 2 or 3, 1930) was a German interdisciplinary scientist who had early training in astronomy. (Ph.D., University of Berlin, 1905). He became interested in the new discipline of meteorology and as a record-holding balloonist himself, pioneered the use of weather balloons to track air masses. His lectures became a standard textbook in meteorology, The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere. Wegener was part of several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation, when the existence of a jet stream itself was highly controversial. He died there of exposure in bitter cold.

External links

• Alfred Wegener biography
• USGS biography
• Wegener biography at Pangaea.org
• Wegener Institute website (English)