University Geophysicist W. Jason Morgan GS '64 received the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on Nov. 6.
In addition to the groundbreaking work prompting the honor, Morgan, who plans to retire early next year, believes in active learning and has led several classes on trips to the west. Morgan received the medal, the nation's highest scientific honor, for his work on plate tectonics and mantle plumes. He was one of eight scientists and engineers to receive a 2002 medal and the 15th University professor to receive the honor.
Morgan's plate tectonics research describes how the Earth's surface is composed of 12 plates that move with respect to one another.
"In simple terms, it's that the continents are moving horizontally on the surface of the earth — or not just the continents, the whole cool, rigid plate — and that geologically what happens is that the activity occurs only at the boundaries between these plates," Morgan said.
His work has helped scientists understand earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain formation, ocean basins and other aspects of the Earth's surface.
Before he joined the University faculty in 1964, Morgan was a physics graduate student at Princeton. He researched the Earth's rotation and he found many questions regarding Earth itself were more interesting than the physics behind them.
"So instead of using the Earth to learn more about physics, I wanted to use physics to learn more about the Earth," Morgan said.
Morgan also found having a nurturing mentor made all the difference in his studies. And Morgan had the very best — his thesis advisor, physicist Robert Dicke, formerly the Albert Einstein Professor of Science, received the National Medal of Science in 1970.
"The key thing to me is that my thesis advisor, Bob Dicke, was also a recipient," Morgan said. "The person that essentially taught me what science was had also done this."
Now Morgan is the one teaching students about science.
This semester, he offered an introduction to geophysics and appeared as a guest in GEO 314: Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology and GEO 499: Investigating Natural Hazards.
Morgan has also taught the popular geology freshman seminar — part of the curriculum is a field trip to California during fall break — about 10 times.
"I think of it as the right kind of exposure to science," he said. "The main message is that you observe nature closely and you start to figure things out on your own."
Memorization, or, in Morgan's words, "[the] collection of facts as to what the world is," is not what science is about, he said.
Morgan decided to retire before he found out about the award, because he has grandchildren who are, he said, getting old very fast.
While he won't attend any more faculty meetings, he said his research will be the same and he will guest lecture in seminars.
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