Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS[1][3] (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a British geophysicist who made significant contributions to mathematics and statistics. His book, Theory of Probability, which was first published in 1939, played an important role in the revival of the objective Bayesian view of probability.[4][5][6]
Jeffreys subsequently won a scholarship to study the Mathematical Tripos at St John's College, Cambridge, where he established a reputation as an excellent student: obtaining first-class marks for his papers in Part One of the Tripos, he was a Wrangler in Part Two, and in 1915 he was awarded the prestigious Smith's Prize.[9]
By 1924 Jeffreys had developed a general method of approximating solutions to linear, second-order differential equations, including the Schrödinger equation. Although the Schrödinger equation was developed two years later, Wentzel, Kramers, and Brillouin were apparently unaware of this earlier work, so Jeffreys is often neglected when credit is given for the WKB approximation.[11]
From 1939 to 1952 he was established as Director of the International Seismological Summary further known as International Seismological Centre.
The textbook Probability Theory: The Logic of Science, written by the physicist and probability theorist Edwin T. Jaynes, is dedicated to Jeffreys. The dedication reads, "Dedicated to the memory of Sir Harold Jeffreys, who saw the truth and preserved it."
Opposition to continental drift and plate tectonics
Jeffreys, like many of his peers, staunchly opposed the concept of continental drift as put forth by Alfred Wegener and Arthur Holmes. This opposition persisted even into the 1960s among his colleagues at Cambridge. For him, continental drift was "out of the question" because no force even remotely strong enough to move the continents across the Earth's surface was evident.[13] As geological and geophysical evidence for continental drift and plate tectonics mounted in the 1960s and after, to the point where it became the unifying concept of modern geology, Jeffreys remained a stubborn opponent of the theory to his death.
^Robert, C.P.; Chopin, N.; Rousseau, J. (2009). "Harold Jeffreys's Theory of Probability Revisited". Statistical Science. 24 (2): 141–172. arXiv:0804.3173. doi:10.1214/09-STS284.
^Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
^"Papers and Correspondence of Sir Harold Jeffreys". Archived from the original on 18 September 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2008.
^ a bCook, Alan [rev.], "Jeffreys, Sir Harold (1891–1989)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, September 2004. Retrieved 1 January 2023. (subscription required)
^Bolt, B. A. (1982). "The Constitution of the Core: Seismological Evidence". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 306 (1492): 11–20. Bibcode:1982RSPTA.306...11B. doi:10.1098/rsta.1982.0062. S2CID 120731079.
^Igorʹ Vasilʹevich Andrianov; Jan Awrejcewicz; L. I. Manevitch; Leonid Isaakovich Manevich (2004). Asymptotical mechanics of thin-walled structures. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. p. 471. ISBN 3-540-40876-2.
^"Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory - Biography of Vetlesen Prize Winner - Sir Harold Jeffreys". Archived from the original on 28 November 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
^Lewis, Cherry (2002). The dating game: one man's search for the age of the Earth. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 159. ISBN 0-521-89312-7.
^Uhler, Horace Scudder (1929). "Review: Operational methods in mathematical physics, by H. Jeffreys". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 35 (6): 882–883. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1929-04822-5.
^Struik, D. J. (1939). "Review: Scientific inference by H. Jeffreys". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 45 (3): 213–215. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1939-06947-4.
^Jeffreys, Harold (13 December 1973). Scientific Inference (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-08446-6.
^Taylor, J. H. (1933). "Review: Cartesian tensors, by H. Jeffreys". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 39 (9): 661. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1933-05715-4.
^Dodd, Edward L. (1940). "Review: Theory of probability, by H. Jeffreys". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 46 (9, Part 1): 739–741. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1940-07280-5.
^Synge, J. L. (1948). "Review: Methods of mathematical physics, by H. Jeffreys and B. S. Jeffreys". Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 54 (3): 300–303. doi:10.1090/s0002-9904-1948-08974-1.
Howie, David (2002). Interpreting Probability: Controversies and Developments in the Early Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81251-8.
Swirles, Bertha (1992). "Reminiscences and Discoveries: Harold Jeffreys from 1891 to 1940". Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond.46 (2): 301–308. doi:10.1098/rsnr.1992.0028. JSTOR 531640. S2CID 144873990.