Wilson, J Tuzo

Wilson, J(ohn) Tuzo

(born Oct. 24, 1908, Ottawa, Ont., Can.—died April 15, 1993, Toronto, Ont.) Canadian geologist and geophysicist. He was the first graduate of a Canadian university in the field of geophysical studies (1930). After World War II he became a professor of geophysics at the University of Toronto. He established global patterns of faulting and the structure of the continents, and in the 1960s he became the world's leading spokesman for the theory of continental drift. His studies also were important for the hypothesis of seafloor spreading and the theory of convection currents within the Earth. A range of mountains in Antarctica is named for him.