Philip Henry Kuenen

Philip Henry Kuenen was a Dutch geologist born July 22, 1902, in Dundee, United Kingdom, who died December 17, 1976, in Leiden, Netherlands, and who studied at Leiden University under K. Martin and B. G. Escher, completing his degree in 1925, before becoming a lecturer at Groningen University in 1934 and a full professor there in 1946. Known particularly for his work on marine geology, his research spanned geochemical analysis of sediments, sea level change, the rounding of sediment particles, and especially turbidites and turbidity currents, combining experimental methods with field geology; he took part in the Snellius expedition to the Sunda Islands region from 1929 to 1930. He was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1946, and received the Gustav Steinmann Medal in 1966, the Francis P. Shepard Medal, the Penrose Medal, and the Wollaston Medal in 1970.