Dietz, Robert Sinclair

Born Westfield, New Jersey, USA, 14 September 1914

Died Tempe, Arizona, USA, 19 May 1995

Robert Sinclair Dietz was a marine geologist, geophysicist, oceanographer, and professor of geology at Arizona State University. He is considered to have been one of the most influential geologists of the twentieth century. Dietz was the son of civil engineer Louis Dietz and his wife Bertha Dietz. In 1941, Robert completed his studies in geology and chemistry at the University of Illinois. He received all three of his degrees – B.S. (1937), M.S. (1939), and Ph.D. (1941) – from that institution.

Dietz served as a pilot in the United States Army Air Force during World War II and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, Dietz became a civilian scientist with the United States Navy at the Navy Electronics Laboratory [NEL] in San Diego, from 1946 to 1954 and from 1959 to 1963. He supervised the oceanographic research done in 1946–1947 on the last Antarctic expedition by Admiral Richard E....