Norman Sleep

Norman H. Sleep is an American geophysicist born February 14, 1945, who is a professor of geophysics at Stanford University. Since 1969 he has researched mid ocean ridges, showing the temperature dependence of the ratio of water depth to the age of the underlying ocean floor, and has studied hydrothermal fluid circulation at ridges, continental margin subsidence, mantle plumes, and planetary geology including the Tharsis region of Mars, along with the habitability and climate of the early Earth. He received the James B. Macelwane Medal in 1980, the George P. Woollard Prize in 1991, the Walter H. Bucher Medal in 1998, and the Wollaston Medal in 2008, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999.