Head and shoulders portrait of Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, the President of UW Madison 1887-1892. View the original photo here: WHI 2241

Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin was a professor, university president, geologist, and author.

Career

He was born in Mattoon, Illinois and in 1846, moved with his family to Beloit, where he attended common schools there, and graduated from Beloit College in 1866. After two years as principal of the Delavan high school, he did graduate work at the University of Michigan from 1868 to 1869. He was the professor of natural sciences at Whitewater State Normal School from 1870 to 1872, and a professor of geology at Beloit College from 1873 to 1882. During this time he also served the Wisconsin Geological Survey-- first as assistant state geologist from 1873 to 1876 and then as chief geologist from 1877 until 1882.

In 1882, he received an honorary Ph.D. from both the universities of Wisconsin and Michigan. In the same year he became U.S. geologist in charge of glacial studies, a post that he held until 1907. He was professor of geology at Columbian University in Washington, D.C. from 1885 to 1887, when he left that position to become president of the University of Wisconsin.

During his term as president from 1887 until 1892, the graduate program was encouraged by the establishment of a fellowship plan and by the introduction of the seminar method in 1888. That same year, study for the Ph.D. degree was first authorized. He was also instrumental in establishing the extension services at the university and authorizing the graduate department of economics, political science and history. In 1892, Chamberlin left Wisconsin to become head of the geology department of the newly-formed University of Chicago. He held this position until retirement in 1919.

Accomplishments

He accompanied the Peary relief expedition to Greenland in 1894. Recognized as one of the leading scientists in his field, Chamberlin's major contributions resulted from his study of glacial phenomena and of geological climates. Additionally, his planetesimal theory of the earth's origin was developed with the mathematician, Forest R. Moulton, and published in the "Origin of the Earth" in 1916.

He was editor of the four volume "Geology of Wisconsin" from 1877 to 1883. Among his other works are "A General Treatise on Geology" in 1906, written with R. D. Salisbury, and "The Two Solar Systems: The Sun's Children" in 1928. He was editor-in-chief of the "Journal of Geology" from 1893 until 1922, and held numerous honorary and elective offices in various scientific organizations.

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