Dennis V. Kent named to National Academy of Sciences
Archived article from May 31, 2004
Geological sciences professor Dennis V. Kent has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, achieving one of the highest honors a U.S. scientist or engineer can attain. Kent is one of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 13 countries recognized in April for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
An internationally recognized authority on Earth magnetism, Kent researches magnetic events like polarity reversals preserved in rocks. He is also interested in paleoclimatology and advocates the theory that a comet that struck Earth 55 million years ago triggered the last, great greenhouse-induced episode of global warming.
Kent came to Rutgers in 1998 from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., where he was director of research.
He is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and according to ScienceWatch, is one of the most highly cited earth scientists in the world.
Kent holds a bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York’s City College. He earned his doctorate from Columbia University.
“Professor Kent’s election to the academy recognizes his long and distinguished record of excellent and original research into the formation of our earth,” said Holly Smith, executive dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “His colleagues, students and the entire university are tremendously proud of him.”
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit society of distinguished scholars that was chartered in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.
— Ken Branson
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