M. Gordon Wolman
Markley Gordon Wolman (August 16, 1924 – February 24, 2010) was an American
At the age of 12, he was sent to work on a Connecticut dairy farm for the summer. “My mother said she wanted me to know that milk didn’t come from a bottle.” Returning to the farm for several years after that, he first became exposed to the problem of soil erosion and the effect it has on water supplies. After serving in the US Navy during World War II, he returned to Baltimore and earned his BA in geology in 1949.[2]
As a scientist at the
Dr. Wolman applied his expertise to local problems beginning in the 1960s, when his report on how runoff from construction projects was choking Maryland's streams with sediment helped lead to new state regulations. He later headed the Oyster Roundtable, a coalition of environmentalists, watermen and scientists that designed a plan to reverse the Chesapeake Bay's catastrophic oyster decline during the 1990s. Wolman was also one of the leading forces behind Maryland's sediment and erosion control law, passed in 1970, based on the US federal Clean Water Act.[6]
In 1958, Dr. Wolman accepted a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins University. An early proponent of interdisciplinary education, he helped combine the departments of geography and sanitary and water resources to create the department of geography and environmental engineering, which he chaired for 20 years until 1990.[7] In 1988, Wolman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1992 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.[8]
Honors
- 1988 - Elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
- 1989 - Cullum Geographical Medal
- 1999 - Penrose Medal
- 2000 - Robert E. Horton Medal
- 2006 - Awarded, along with Luna Leopold, the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science
- Past president of the Geological Society of America.
References
- ^ Rasmussen, Frederick N. (February 27, 2010). "M. Gordon Wolman". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
- ^ Frederick Rasmussen, "M. Gordon Wolman," Baltimore Sun February 27, 2010
- ^ Finkbeiner, Ann (June 2, 2010). "In Memoriam: M. Gordon Wolman". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
- ^ DeFries, Ruth S.; Dunne, Thomas (2011). "Markley Gordon Wolman 1942-2010" (PDF). Retrieved August 14, 2015.
- ^ Rasmussen, "M. Gordon Wolman"
- ^ Rasmussen, "M. Gordon Wolman."
- ^ Brown, Emma (March 2, 2010). "M. Gordon Wolman dies; professor a pioneer in river research". Washington Post. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
- ^ "A Celebration of the Life of M. Gordon 'Reds' Wolman, 1924-2010," April 11, 2010