Acknowledgements

Resonance gratefully ackrtowledges help received from Jayant Rao.

Alfred Wegener was born in Berlin on November 1,1880. He obtained a PhD degree in astronomy from

Berlin University in 1905, but subsequently addressed research problems mostly in meteorology. His

investigations on geophysical, geological and geodetic themes appear limited to the extent that they had

a bearing on his theory of continental drift. The theory that brought him everlasting fame occupied him

only partially.

Wegener taught at educational institutions in Marburg (1910-1918), Dorpat (1919) and Hamburg

(1919-1923). He was appointed to the chair of meteorology and geophysics at Graz, University of A ustria

in 1924. In between, Wegener was an Infantry captain in the German forces on the Western Front during

1914-1915. He was wounded twice and became invalid f or further active service the second time. For

the rest of the World War, he was associated with the A rmy Weather Service on the German Eastern Front.

Wegener loved adventure and visited Greenland in 1906-08, 1912-13 and 1929-30. He was the leader

of the last of these expeditions. The accounts available to me differ on whether the objectives of that

expedition included geophysical investigations related to continental drift also.

On November 1, 1930, his fifty-first birthday, Wegener sa out to replenish supplies at his station on the

Greenland icecap. It is surmised that he died ten days later near 71~ N and 44 ~ IYfA. His body was recovered

and buried on the icecap in the summer of 1931.

Ramesh Chander

Alfred Wegener (1880- 1930).