Walter C. Pitman III

Pitman was born on 21 October 1931 in Newark, New Jersey.{{cite web|title=Walter C. Pitman III: Biography|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/the-vetlesen-prize/past-recipients/walter-c-pitman-iii|website=The Vetlesen Prize|publisher=Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory|accessdate=28 February 2018|language=en}} He received a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering in 1956 from Lehigh University and went to work for Hazeltine Corporation from 1956 to 1960. In 1960, he became a marine technician for Columbia University's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, applying his expertise as an electrical engineer in oceanographic research. The following year he became a graduate student in geophysics. Among his most important work was measurements of magnetic anomalies in the sea floor which supported the Morley–Vine–Matthews hypothesis explaining seafloor spreading.

{{Main|Black Sea deluge theory}}

Pitman, along with Columbia colleague Bill Ryan, published evidence in 1997 that a massive flooding event greatly expanded the Black Sea very quickly around 5600 BC. This was published as Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History in 1998, in which the authors argued that the deluge could be linked to mythical flood events such as Noah's Flood.{{Scientific American Frontiers |season=12 |episode=7 |author = Jacqueline S. Mitchell | name = The Truth Behind Noah's Flood | publisher = PBS | date = 7 June 2002 | url = https://www.pbs.org/saf/1207/features/noah.htm | accessdate = 2 June 2012 }}

In 1984, Pitman was awarded the Society for Sedimentary Geology’s Francis Shepard Medal. In 1996, he was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union.{{cite journal|last1=Opdyke|first1=Neil D.|last2=Pitman|first2=Walter|title=Pitman receives Ewing Medal|journal=Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union|date=1997|volume=78|issue=11|pages=119|doi=10.1029/97EO00076|doi-access=free}} In 1998, he received the Alexander Agassiz Medal of the United States National Academy of Sciences "for his fundamental contribution to the plate tectonic revolution through insightful analysis of marine magnetic anomalies and for his studies of the causes and effects of sea-level changes".{{cite web|title=Alexander Agassiz Medal|url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/alexander-agassiz-medal.html|website=www.nasonline.org|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|accessdate=28 February 2018}} In 2000, he was awarded the Vetlesen Prize for plate tectonic theory, theoretical geomorphology and tectonics. In 2013, he was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.{{cite news|last1=Krajik|first1=Kevin|title=Two Veteran Oceanographers Named AAAS Fellows {{!}} Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/two-veteran-oceanographers-named-aaas-fellows|accessdate=28 February 2018|work=News & Events|publisher=Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory|date=25 November 2013|language=en}} He is also a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America.{{cite news|last1=Sternlof|first1=Kurt|title=Morgan, Pitman and Sykes Win Vetlesen Prize for Earth Science Achievement|url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/pr/00/01/vetlesen.html|accessdate=28 February 2018|work=News|publisher=Columbia University|date=21 January 2000}}

• {{cite book

|last = Ryan

|first = William

|author2 = Walter Pitman

|title = Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About The Event That Changed History

|publisher = Simon & Schuster

|year = 1997

|isbn = 978-0-684-85920-0

|url-access = registration

|url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780684859200

}}

{{reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book|editor-last1=Engelhardt|editor-first1=H. Tristram|editor-last2=Caplan|editor-first2=Arthur L.|title=Scientific controversies : case studies in the resolution and closure of disputes in science and technology|url=https://archive.org/details/scientificcontro00jrht|url-access=limited|date=1986|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521275606|pages=[https://archive.org/details/scientificcontro00jrht/page/n248 236]–237}}
• {{cite book|last1=Frankel|first1=Henry R.|title=The Continental Drift Controversy: Volume 4, Evolution into Plate Tectonics|date=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107379619}}
• {{cite book|last1=Hsü|first1=Kenneth Jinghwa|title=Challenger at Sea: A Ship That Revolutionized Earth Science|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400863020|pages=69, 104–106}}
• {{cite book|last1=Molnar|first1=Peter|title=Plate Tectonics: A Very Short Introduction|date=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198728269}}
• {{cite book|editor-last1=Oreskes|editor-first1=Naomi|editor1-link=Naomi Oreskes|editor-last2=Grand|editor-first2=Homer Le|title=Plate tectonics : an insider's history of the modern theory of the earth ; [seventeen original essays by the scientists who made earth history]|date=2001|publisher=Westview Press|location=Boulder, CO|isbn=9780813339818}}

{{Refend}}

• [http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/walter-pitman-smoking-gun-plate-tectonics?platform=hootsuite Walter Pitman and the Smoking Gun of Plate Tectonics], April 19, 2016, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory video

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitman, Walter C. III}}

Category:1931 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:American oceanographers

Category:American geophysicists

Category:Columbia University alumni

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Lehigh University alumni

Category:Marine geophysicists

Category:Vetlesen Prize winners