Donald Vincent Helmberger () was an American

seismologist Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

; described in his ''Seismological Research Letters'' obituary as "one of the most impactful seismologists to have lived". A memorial issue in ''Earthquake Science'' was published in his honor February 2022. He served as head of the

Caltech Seismological Laboratory The Caltech Seismological Laboratory is an arm of the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences of the California Institute of Technology. Known as "the Seismo Lab", it has been a world center for seismology research since the 1920s, and was fo ...

from 1998 to 2003, and was the Smits Family Professor of Geophysics,

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

upon his death. He was named to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Nati ...

in 2004. Helmberger was the first winner of the

Inge Lehmann Medal The Inge Lehmann Medal is given out by the American Geophysical Union to recognize "outstanding contributions to the understanding of the structure, composition, and dynamics of the Earth's mantle and core". The award was created in 1995 and named a ...

in 1997.

Career

After earning his Ph.D. in 1967, he worked as a

research associate Research associates are researchers (scholars and professionals) that usually have an advanced degree beyond a Master's degree. In some universities/research institutes, such as Harvard/Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, the ...

for

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and then as a faculty member at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

. He began working as an assistant professor at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in 1970. He became an emeritus in 2017. Ultra-low velocity zones were discovered by Helmberger in 1995. Following his death,

Mike Gurnis Michael Gurnis is the John E. and Hazel S. Smits Professor of Geophysics at the California Institute of Technology. Gurnis served as director of the Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG), an NSF-funded institute operated by Caltech ...

said that Helmberger had "discovered more about the deep interior of the Earth in the last half of the 20th century than any other researcher in the world."
Secondary source: *

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmberger, Donald V. 1938 births 2020 deaths California Institute of Technology faculty People from Perham, Minnesota University of California, Los Angeles alumni American seismologists Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Minnesota alumni