B. Clark Burchfiel

B. Clark Burchfiel was an American structural geologist who lived from 1934 to 2024 and spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after joining its faculty in 1976 from Rice University, becoming the Schlumberger Professor Emeritus of Geology, known for research on the origin, development and structural evolution of continental crust and, later in his career, on the geological history and evolution of the Tibetan Plateau. He authored roughly two hundred scientific papers and mentored more than fifty graduate students. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1985 and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1998, served as president of the Geological Society of America in 2003, and received its Career Achievement Award in 1995 and Distinguished Service Award of its International Division in 2013. He received the Penrose Medal in 2009.