Cesare Emiliani (8 December 1922 – 20 July 1995) was an Italian-American scientist,

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

, micropaleontologist, and founder of

paleoceanography Paleoceanography is the study of the history of the oceans in the geologic past with regard to circulation, chemistry, biology, geology and patterns of sedimentation and biological productivity. Paleoceanographic studies using environment model ...

, developing the timescale of marine isotope stages, which despite modifications remains in use today. He established that the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

s of the last half million years or so are a cyclic phenomenon, which gave strong support to the hypothesis of Milankovitch and revolutionized ideas about the history of the oceans and of the

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate be ...

s. He was also the proponent of Project "LOCO" (for Long Cores) to the U.S. National Science Foundation. The project was a success providing evidence of the history of the oceans and also serving to test the hypotheses of seafloor spreading and

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

. Cesare Emiliani was honored by having the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Emiliania'' erected as home for the

taxon In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

'' huxleyi'', which had previously been assigned to '' Coccolithus''. He was further honored by receiving the Vega Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (SSAG) (Swedish: Svenska Sällskapet för Antropologi och Geografi) in 1983, and the Alexander Agassiz Medal of the U.S.

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

in 1989 for his isotopic studies on

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

and

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

planktic

foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

. In his later years, he promoted a calendar reform based on the

Holocene calendar The Holocene calendar, also known as the Holocene Era or Human Era (HE), is a year numbering system that adds exactly 10,000 years to the currently dominant ( AD/BC or CE/BCE) numbering scheme, placing its first year near the beginning of the ...

(HE) concept to eliminate the BC–AD

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

gap caused by the lack of a year 0.

Biography

Cesare Emiliani was born in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. His parents were Luigi and Maria (Manfredini) Emiliani. Emiliani studied geology at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

in post-war

and earned his degree in Geology (micropaleontology) also at Bologna in 1945. After graduation he worked as a micropaleontologist with the Società Idrocarburi Nazionali in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

from 1946–48. In 1948 he was offered and accepted the Rollin D. Salisbury Fellowship in the Department of Geology at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

where he subsequently obtained his PhD in Geology (isotopic

paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology ( British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of ...

) in 1950. From 1950 to 1956 he was Research Associate in Harold Urey’s

Geochemistry Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...

Laboratory in the Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies at the

. In 1957 Cesare Emiliani was working on

Foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

(microscopic protists whose remains are greatly abundant in the fossil record) and was particularly interested in great climate changes known to have occurred during the Pleistocene Age. He was sure these tiny shells deposited in the ubiquitous ooze that coats the sea bottom held important clues. For that reason he was looking at the time for a place to work where there were ships and trained personnel to help him to obtain core samples of the deep-sea sediments for his studies. An interview with Dr. Walton Smith convinced Cesare that the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

’s Institute of Marine Science, which was renamed the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, was the right place to conduct his research and thus he moved there that same year. In 1967 he was named Chairman of the Division of Geology and Geophysics at the Institute. At that time he organized the department of Geological Sciences on the main campus of the

and remained its Chairman until his retirement in 1993. He died in

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, approximately 80 miles north of Miami. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. The population was 59,182 at the ...

in 1995. He was survived by his wife Rosita (d. 2010), son Mario, and daughter Sandra. Memorial tributes were written by colleagues.

Works

* Emiliani, Cesare. (1992). ''Planet Earth : Cosmology, Geology, & the Evolution of Life & the Environment''. Cambridge University Press. (Paperback Edition ) * Emiliani, Cesare. (1995). ''The Scientific Companion : Exploring the Physical World with Facts, Figures, and Formulas (Wiley Popular Science) (2nd Edition)''. Wiley. (Paperback Edition ) * Emiliani, Cesare. (1993). ''Dictionary of Physical Sciences''. Oxford University Press. (Paperback Edition )

Scientific

* Emiliani C (1954) ''Depth habitats of some species of pelagic foraminifera as indicated by oxygen isotope ratios''. American Journal of Science 252:149–158 * Emiliani C (1954) ''Temperature of Pacific bottom waters and polar superficial waters during the Tertiary''. Science 119:853–855 * Emiliani C (1956) ''Oligocene and Miocene temperature of the equatorial and subtropical Atlantic Ocean''. Journal of Geology 64:281–288 * Emiliani C (1956) ''On paleotemperatures of Pacific bottom waters''. Science 123:460–461 * Emiliani C (1957) ''Temperature and age analysis of deepsea cores''. Science 125:383–385 * Emiliani C (1961) ''The temperature decrease of surface water in high latitudes and of abyssal-hadal water in open oceanic basins during the past 75 million years''. Deep-Sea Research 8:144–147 * Emiliani C (1965) ''Precipitous continental clopes and considerations on the transitional crust''. Science 147:145–148 * Emiliani C (1966) ''Isotopic paleotemperatures''. Science 154: 851–857 * Emiliani C (1966). ''Paleotemperature analysis of Caribbean cores P6304-8 and P6304-9 and a generalized temperature curve for the past 425,000 years''. Journal of Geology 74:109–124 * Emiliani C (1968) ''The Pleistocene epoch and the evolution of man''. Current Anthropology 9:27–47 * Emiliani C (1969) ''Interglacials, high sea levels and the control of Greenland ice by the precession of the equinoxes''. Science 166:1503–1504 * Emiliani C (1969) ''A new paleontology''. Micropaleontology 15:265–300 * Emiliani C (1970) ''Pleistocene paleotemperatures''. Science 168:822–825 * Emiliani C (1971) ''The amplitude of Pleistocene climatic cycles at low latitudes and the isotopic composition of glacial ice''. In: Turekian KK (ed) Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp 183–197 * Emiliani C (1971) ''Depth habitats and growth stages of pelagic formanifera''. Science 173:1122–1124 * Emiliani C (1971) ''Paleotemperature variations across the Plio-Pleistocene boundary at the type section''. Science 171:600–602 * Emiliani C (1978) ''The cause of the ice ages''. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 37:347–354 * Emiliani C (1981) ''A new global geology''. In: Emiliani C (ed) The Oceanic Lithosphere. The Sea (8th edn). Vol. 7. New York: Wiley Interscience, pp 1687–738 * Emiliani C (1982) ''Extinctive evolution''. Journal of Theoretical Biology 97:13–33 * Emiliani C (1987) ''Dictionary of Physical Sciences''. Oxford: Oxford University Press * Emiliani C (1988) ''The Scientific Companion''. New York: Wiley * Emiliani C (1989) ''The new geology or the old role of the geological sciences in science education''. Journal of Geological Education 37:327–331 * Emiliani C (1991) ''Avogadro number and mole: a royal confusion''. Journal of Geological Education 39:31–33 * Emiliani C (1991) ''Planktic et al.'' Marine Micropaleontology 18:3 * Emiliani C (1991) ''Planktic/planktonic, nektic/nektonic, benthic/benthonic''. Journal of Paleontology 65:329 * Emiliani C, Ericson DB (1991) ''The glacial/interglacial temperature range of the surface water of the ocean at low latitudes''. In: Taylor HP, O’Neil JR, Kaplan IR (eds) Special Publication: Stable Isotope Geochemistry: A Tribute to Samuel Epstein. Pennsylvania: Geochemical Society, University Park, pp 223–228 * Emiliani C (1992) ''The Moon as a piece of Mercury''. Geologische Rundschau 81:791–794 * Emiliani C (1992) ''Planet Earth: Cosmology, Geology, and the Evolution of Life and Environment''. New York: Cambridge University Press * Emiliani C (1992) ''Pleistocene paleotemperatures''. Science 257:1188–1189 * Emiliani C (1993) ''Milankovitch theory verified; discussion''. Nature 364:583 * Emiliani C (1993) ''Calendar reform''. Nature 366:716 * Emiliani C (1993) ''Extinction and viruses''. BioSystems 31:155–159 * Emiliani C (1993) ''Paleoecological implications of Alaskan terrestrial vertebrate fauna in latest Cretaceous time at high paleolatitudes: Comment''. Geology 21:1151–1152 * Emiliani C (1993) ''Viral extinctions in deep-sea species''. Nature 366:217–218 * Emiliani C (1995) ''Redefinition of atomic mass unit, Avogadro constant, and mole''. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 59:1205–1206 * Emiliani C (1995) ''Tropical paleotemperatures: discussion''. Science 268:1264 * Emiliani C, Edwards G (1953) ''Tertiary ocean bottom temperatures''. Nature 171:887–888 * Emiliani C, Elliott I (1995) ''Vatican confusion''. Nature 375:530 * Emiliani C, Epstein S (1953) ''Temperature variations in the lower Pleistocene of Southern California''. Journal of Geology 61:171–181 * Emiliani C, Gartner S, Lidz B (1972) ''Neogene sedimentation on the Blake Plateau and the emergence of the Central American Isthmus''. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 11:1–10 * Emiliani C, Gartner S, Lidz B, Eldridge K, Elvey DK, Huang PC, Stipp JJ, Swanson M (1975) ''Paleoclimatological analysis of late Quaternary cores from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico''. Science 189:1083–1088 * Emiliani C, Geiss J (1959) ''On glaciations and their causes''. Geologische Rundschau 46:576–601 * Emiliani C, Harrison CG, Swanson M (1969) ''Underground nuclear explosions and the control of earthquakes''. Science 165:1255–1256 * Emiliani C, Kraus EB, Shoemaker EM (1981) ''Sudden death at the end of the Mesozoic''. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 55:327–334 * Emiliani C, Mayeda T, Selli R (1961) ''Paleotemperature analysis of the Plio-Pleistocene section at le Castella, Calabria, southern Italy''. Geological Society of America Bulletin 72:679–688 * Emiliani C, Milliman JD (1966) ''Deep-sea sediments and their geological record''. Earth-Science Reviews 1:105–132 * Emiliani C, Price DA, Seipp J (1991) ''Is the Postglacial artificial?'' In: Taylor HP, O’Neil JR, Kaplan IR (eds) Special Publication: Stable Isotope Geochemistry: A Tribute to Samuel Epstein. Pennsylvania: Geochemical Society, University Park, pp 229–231 * Emiliani C, Shackleton NJ (1974) ''The Brunhes Epoch: paleotemperature and geochronology''. Science 183:511–514

References

* http://www.soes.soton.ac.uk/staff/tt/eh/ce.html

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Cesare Emiliani and Donald R. Moore on 29 March 1990, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emiliani, Cesare 1922 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American geologists American paleontologists 20th-century Italian geologists Italian paleontologists Scientists from Bologna University of Miami faculty University of Bologna alumni Micropaleontologists Italian emigrants to the United States