Profile of the Day: Inge Lehmann

Inge Lehmann

Happy 127th birthday to pioneering seismologist Inge Lehmann!

Today’s Google Doodle honors the Danish scientist, who discovered the Earth’s inner core. Here are five things to know about Inge Lehmann:

1. Lehmann was born on May 13, 1888 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her father, Alfred Georg Ludvik Lehmann, was an experimental psychologist and one of the most significant influences for her intellectual development.

2. She studied mathematics at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge during a time when women were not readily accepted in the fields of math and science. By 1928, she had worked her way up to become state geodesist and head of the department of seismology at the Geodetical Institute of Denmark.

3. While studying an earthquake near New Zealand, Lehmann noticed that seismometers in Europe had faintly detected some of the seismic waves. Analyzing the existing data, she postulated that the Earth’s core was not made of molten rock, but was made of a solid inner core and a molten outer core. Her discovery would revolutionize our understanding of the Earth.

4. For decades, she was one of the leading seismologists in the world. And for a time, the only seismologist in Denmark. In 1971, she became the first woman to receive the William Bowie Medal, the highest award in geophysics.

5. Lehmann remained active in seismological research well into her 70s. She died in 1993 at the age of 104.

Inge Lehmann is connected to over 90 million people in Geni’s World Family Tree. How are you related?
 

View Inge Lehmann’s Geni Profile