Helmut de Terra

Biography

Early life

Helmut de Terra was born in Germany in 1900 of a family of French Huguenot origin, and received his education in the ancient university town of Marburg (Hesse). A boyhood interest in travel and natural science led him to study geology and geography at the University of Munich, from which he received his PhD.

Career

After the conclusion of his university studies in Munich, he began his research in Asia in 1927-28 as a member of a German-Swiss expedition to central Asia, which was soon to make his name well known. Crossing the Himalayas into Tibet and Chinese Turkestan prepared him for later expeditions to Kashmir, India, Burma and Java. de Terra conducted a number of scientific expeditions into Asia and the Americas. He was the first to produce a glaciological map of the Eastern Himalayas and to advance the theory that humans were established in Asia almost as early as in Africa. Thereafter he accepted teaching and research positions at Yale University and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. Under their auspices he conducted three scientific missions to Asia, discovering stone-age cultures and collecting fossil remains of man's re¬motest ancestors as well as making significant contributions to our knowledge of man's geologic antiquity. He was a close friend and colleague of

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