Vaughan, Thomas Wayland

Vaughan, Thomas Wayland

(1870–1952) geologist, paleontologist, oceanographer; born in Jonesville, Texas. Educated at Harvard (A.B., A.M., Ph.D.), he was an authority on marine sediments, fossil and recent corals, and American Tertiary stratigraphy. He was a researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey (1894–1939) and custodian of madreporian corals (1903–23) at the U.S. National Museum. Under his directorship (1924–36), Scripps Institute, La Jolla, Calif., became a leading oceanographical research center.