Amadeus William Grabau

Amadeus William Grabau (January 9, 1870 – March 20, 1946) was an American geologist, teacher, stratigrapher, paleontologist, and author who worked in the United States and China.

Biography
Grabau's grandfather, J.A.A. Grabau, led a group of dissident Lutheran immigrants from Germany to Buffalo, New York. His education began in his father's parochial school in his birthplace of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, and then the public high school there. After his father became head of the Martin Luther Seminary in 1885, he finished high school in Buffalo. He took classes in the evenings while apprenticed to a bookbinder. His interest in local fossils grew. In a correspondence course in mineralogy, he impressed geologist William Otis Crosby enough to hire him at the Boston Society of Natural History in 1890, and arrange his education at Boston Latin, MIT, and Harvard.

He taught at MIT and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute early in his career. In 1901 he became a professor at Columbia University in New York. He married Barnard student Mary Antin on October 5, 1901. She would go on to become a prominent author. The pro-German attitudes during World War I led to an estrangement from his wife, and in 1919 he left Columbia for China. He traveled to China to become a professor at University of Peking and a member of the Chinese Geological Survey in October 1920. As part of his life's work, he conducted a geologic survey of China, and is now known as the father of Chinese geology.

In 1936, the National Academy of Sciences awarded him the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from for most important service to geology and paleontology. During World War II he remained in Peking. Around 1941 he was interned by the Japanese Imperial Army. His health declined precipitously, and he died of an internal hemorrhage after his release.

Books
Grabau was also a prolific author, publishing at least 10 books in the first half of the 20th century. Grabau developed various theories during his lifetime, among them the theory of rhythms concerning the growth of the Earth's crust and a theory concerning mountain building and creation. The Dorsum Grabau, a wrinkle ridge on the Moon was named after him in 1976. A list of books written by Grabau, and their publication dates includes:
North American Index Fossils (1909, 1910)
 Grabau A. W. & Shimer H. W. 1909. Invertebrates. Volume I.. A. G. Seiler & Company, New York. (alternate scan)
 Grabau A. W. & Shimer H. W. 1910. Invertebrates. Volume II.. New York.
Principles of Stratigraphy (1913)
Textbook of Geology (1920–21) Two volumes: Part I; Part II.
Silurian Fossils of Yunnan (1920)
Ordovician Fossils of North China (1922)
Paleozoic Corals of China (1921)
Stratigraphy of China (1924–25)
Migration of Geosynclines (1924)
Early Permian Fossils of China (1934)
Rhythm of the Ages (1940)

References

Further reading

H. D. Thomas, Nature 158 (1946): 89–91
H. W. Shimer, Am. Jour. of Science 244 (1946): 735–736 (with bibliography)
H. W. Shimer, Geological Soc. of America, Proc., 1947, pp. 155–166
V. K. Ting, in Geological Society of China, Bull. 10 (1931): ix–xviii (also cited as Grabau Anniversary, the commemorative vol. presented to Grabau on his fiftieth birthday)
Y. C. Sun, in Geological Society of China, Bull. 27 (1947): 1026, includes a bibliography of 291 titles.

External links 

 

1870 births
1946 deaths
American paleontologists
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute faculty
Columbia University faculty
People from Cedarburg, Wisconsin
Scientists from Buffalo, New York
American expatriate academics
American expatriates in China
Boston Latin School alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Harvard University alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty
American prisoners of war in World War II
World War II civilian prisoners held by Japan
American people of German descent
Deaths from bleeding