Robert (Bob) Stephen White (born 12 December 1952) is Professor of Geophysics in the Earth Sciences department at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

(since 1989) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ( FRS) in 1994. He is Director of the

Faraday Institute for Science and Religion The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is an interdisciplinary academic research institute based in Cambridge, England. It is named after the 19th-century English scientist Michael Faraday, the pioneer of electromagnetic induction. It wa ...

Biography

Bob White is also a Fellow of

St Edmund's College, Cambridge St Edmund's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. Founded in 1896, it is the second-oldest of the four Cambridge colleges oriented to mature students, which accept only students reading for postgraduate degr ...

, prior to which he was a student and Research Fellow at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

. A Fellow of the

Geological Society The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

, and a member of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

and several other professional bodies; he serves on numerous of their committees. He leads a research group investigating the Earth's dynamic crust. His most cited paper (White & McKenzie 1989) used geophysical evidence in conjunction with models of melt generation beneath rifts to show that the largest and most rapid effusions of

volcanic rock Volcanic rock (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) is a rock formed from lava erupted from a volcano. In other words, it differs from other igneous rock by being of volcanic origin. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic r ...

on the earth, known as

flood basalt A flood basalt (or plateau basalt) is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that covers large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basalt lava. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot reach ...

s, result from

continental rifting In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben wi ...

above

mantle plumes A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection within the Earth's mantle, hypothesized to explain anomalous volcanism. Because the plume head partially melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic hot ...

. He has organised fieldwork in many different countries and supervised 50 PhD students at the Department of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, many of whom are now prominent in academia, industry, government and education. His work at sea has taken him to the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans and his research group is currently investigating the internal structure of volcanoes in Iceland, New Zealand, the

Faroes The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway betw ...

and the Atlantic margin. His scientific work is published in over 350 papers and articles.

Honours and awards

* 2018 Awarded the

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...

for Geophysics

Publications

Selected Scientific Publications

* White, R. & McKenzie, D. (1989). Magmatism at rift zones: The generation of volcanic continental margins and flood basalts. ''

Journal of Geophysical Research The ''Journal of Geophysical Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is the flagship journal of the American Geophysical Union. It contains original research on the physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the un ...

'', 94, 7685–7729. * White, R. S., McKenzie, D. & O'Nions, R. K. (1992). Oceanic crustal thickness from seismic measurements and rare earth element inversions. ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 97, 19,683–19,715. * Bown, J. W. & White, R. S. (1994). Variation with spreading rate of oceanic crustal thickness and geochemistry. ''

Earth and Planetary Science Letters ''Earth and Planetary Science Letters'' (EPSL) is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on physical, chemical and mechanical processes of the Earth and other planets, including extrasolar ones. Topics covered range from dee ...

'', 121, 435–449. * White, R. S., Minshull, T. A., Bickle, M. J. & Robinson, C. J. (2001). Melt generation at very slow-spreading oceanic ridges: constraints from geochemical and geophysical data. ''

Journal of Petrology The ''Journal of Petrology'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the field of igneous and metamorphic petrology and petrogenesis. The journal is published by the Oxford University Press and indexed in the Science Citation Index. ...

'', 42, 1171–1196. * White, R. S., Christie, P. A. F., Kusznir, N. J., Roberts, A., Davies, A., Hurst, N., Lunnon, Z., Parkin, C. J., Roberts, A. W., Smith, L. K., Spitzer, R., Surendra, A. & Tymms, V. (2002). iSIMM pushes frontiers of marine seismic acquisition. First Break, 20, 782–786. * White, R. S., Smallwood, J. R., Fliedner, M. M., Boslaugh, B., Maresh, J. & Fruehn, J. (2003). Imaging and regional distribution of basalt flows in the Faroe-Shetland Basin. '' Geophysical Prospecting'', 51, 215–231. * Harrison, A. J. & White, R. S. (2004). Crustal structure of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand: stretching and igneous intrusion, ''

Geophysical Research Letters ''Geophysical Research Letters'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal of geoscience published by the American Geophysical Union that was established in 1974. The editor-in-chief is Harihar Rajaram. Aims and scope The journal aims for ra ...

'', vol. 31, L13615, . * White, R. S., et al. (2008). Lower-crustal intrusion on the North Atlantic continental margin, ''Nature'', 452, 460–464 plus supplementary information at www.nature.com, * White, R. S. and Smith, L. K. (2009). Crustal structure of the Hatton and the conjugate east Greenland rifted volcanic continental margins, NE Atlantic, ''Journal of Geophysical Research'', 114, B02305, * White, R. S., Drew, J., Martens, H. R., Key, A. J., Soosalu, H. &Jakobsdóttir, S. S. (2011). Dynamicsof dyke intrusion in the mid-crust of Iceland, ''

'', 304, 300–312, * Tarasewicz, J., Brandsdóttir, B., Robert S. White, R.S., Hensch, M. & Thorbjarnardóttir, B. (2012). Using microearthquakes totrack repeated magma intrusions beneath the Eyjafjallajökull stratovolcano,Iceland, ''

'', 117, B00C06, * Martens, H. R. & White,R. S. (2013). Triggering of microearthquakes in Iceland by volatiles released from a dyke intrusion, ''

Geophysical Journal International ''Geophysical Journal International'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (German Geophysical Society). The j ...

'', 194 (3), 1738‒1754,

Selected Science-Religion Publications

* White, Robert (2001). Science: Friend or Foe? ''

The Church of England Newspaper The ''Church of England Newspaper'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper. Based in London, it is published on Fridays. The ''Church of England Newspaper'' is notable as the earliest church paper, and one of the oldest newspapers still i ...

'', Friday 24 August 2001, p. 11 (also published on

Christians in Science Christians in Science (CiS) is a British organisation of scientists, philosophers, theologians, ministers, teachers, and science students, predominantly evangelical Christians, concerned with the dialogue between Christianity and science. The orga ...

web site www.cis.org.uk) * Alexander, D. & White, R. S. (2004). ''Beyond Belief: Science, Faith and Ethical Challenges'', Lion, Oxford, 219pp. * White, R. S. (2005). Truth in the geological sciences, in ''Can We Be Sure About Anything? Science, Faith and Postmodernism'' (ed.

Denis Alexander Dr. Denis Alexander has spent 40 years in the biomedical research community. He is an Emeritus Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge and an Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge which he co-found ...

), Apollos (an imprint of

Inter-Varsity Press Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) was previously the publishing wing of Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. It support the publishing or distribution of well over one million books each year to over 150 countries, including the translation ...

), Leicester, pp. 187–213. * White, R. S. (2005). "Genesis and Creation, Truth Matters", ''

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

'' * White, R. S. (2007). "The Age of the Earth", Faraday Paper 8 ee_also_''Evangelicals_Now'',_December_2002,_18.html" ;"title="Evangelicals_Now.html" ;"title="ee also ''Evangelicals Now">ee also ''Evangelicals Now'', December 2002, 18">Evangelicals_Now.html" ;"title="ee also ''Evangelicals Now">ee also ''Evangelicals Now'', December 2002, 18 * Spencer, Nick and White, Robert (2007). ''Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living'', SPCK, 245pp. [published in USA as Spencer, Nick, White, Robert and Vroblesky, Virginia, by Hendrickson]. * White, Robert S. (editor) (2009) ''Creation in Crisis: Christian Perspectives on Sustainability'', SPCK, 298pp. * Jonathan A. Moo and Robert S. White (2013) ''Hope in an Age of Despair: The Gospel and the Future of Life on Earth'', Inter-VarsityPress, 224 pp., .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Bob 1952 births Living people People educated at West Bridgford School Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge 20th-century British geologists British geophysicists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of St Edmund's College, Cambridge British Christians Writers about religion and science Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 21st-century British geologists