James Ransom Heirtzler: A Tribute

Abstract James Ransom Heirtzler passed away in Silver Spring, Maryland, on 15 July 2022, at age 96. He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on 16 September 1925. James served in the U.S. Navy in the tropical and western Pacific during 1944–1946. He graduated from New York University obtaining a Ph.D. in Physics in 1953 and taught at the American University of Beirut 1953–1956. Dr. Heirtzler was at Columbia University 1960–1969, at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1969–1985, and then at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center until retiring in 2004. He authored or coauthored 168 scientific articles, edited numerous books and participated in the production of the documentary movie “Where the Earth Turns Inside Out.” James was a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, and the American Physical Society. He led scientific cruises in all the oceans of the world and had expeditions in both Polar Regions. Dr. Heirtzler has two Antarctic geological features and a microfossil named for him: the Heirtzler Ice Piedmont (72°34′S and 61°25′W), the Heirtzler Fracture Zone (63°30′S and 162°30′E), and the microfossil “Pithonella heirtzleri.”