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In the guest blog, geologist Thomas Hofmann looks at the beginning of the scientific careers of excellent scientists.
The definition of young, successful researchers, Early Career Scientists (ECS), is diverse. The leading geosciences EGU (European Geosciences Union) with around 18,000 members, which also publishes 19 open access journals, has a wide range of honors, including the Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award. The target group of early career scientists is broadly defined. It ranges from students to people whose highest degree (bachelor's, master's, doctorate) is no older than seven years. This makes it clear: it is not a priori about academic titles, but about top performance. It is similar at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW); the basis for membership in the Young Academy is the “awarding of important research funding prizes or scholarships”. Even in the 19th century, actions and achievements came first. Many careers started early; some scientists were in their 20s. In many cases, early top performances were and are formative for the rest of your career.
Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) celebrated his 22nd birthday in the Atlantic. He set sail on December 27, 1831 with the HMS Beagle from Plymouth, in southwest England. The purpose of the mission was to survey the coasts of South America and was scheduled to take two years. But things were to turn out differently, because he also celebrated his 27th birthday far from home. "On October 2nd (1836) we reached the coast of England, and at Falmouth I left the 'Beagle,' having lived on board the good little ship for nearly five years." He recorded his impressions, observations and meticulous descriptions in "The Voyage of the Beagle", which was published in German translation in 1875 ("Journey of a Natural Scientist Around the World"). Darwin had not only broken new ground in the southern hemisphere of the earth, he had also experienced all of human ups and downs, including seasickness - "I speak from experience: it is not an ailment that is easy to treat and can be eliminated in a week." His conclusion was positive: "In the end, it seems to me as if nothing could encourage a young natural scientist more than a trip to distant lands."
While Darwin is celebrated today as a pioneer of evolutionary research, his diaries on the Beagle were primarily filled with geological entries. Entirely under the influence of Charles Lyell (1897–1875), grand master of English geology, who published his three-volume opus "Principles of Geology" between 1830 and 1833, which is still considered a milestone today, he studied the forms of inanimate nature. Of course, he also worked as a zoological collector on the trip and brought home a rich haul, including fossils.
His observations on the turtles and birds of the Galapogos Islands are legendary, while his theories on the formation of atolls and reefs ("The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs"), translated into German in 1876, are less well known. The corresponding sketches remained in school textbooks for more than 100 years. But Darwin went down in history not as a geologist, but - thanks to his works "On the Origin of Species" (1859) and "The Descent of Man" (1871) - as a natural scientist who revolutionized the worldview widespread at the time.
Ferdinand v. was hardly older. Hochstetter (1829–1884), a geologist with German roots, who was to make a career in Vienna. The springboard was the circumnavigation of the world on the frigate Novara, which he boarded in Trieste on his 28th birthday. On December 22, 1858, he disembarked in New Zealand to spend the next year together with Julius v. Haast to thoroughly research the geology of the island. On October 2, 1859 he began his journey home. During his journey he worked as a chronicler. He sent letters to Vienna from all ports. It often took several months for these to be published in the "Wiener Zeitung"; there was no trace of news in real time, but rather snail mail.
After his return he was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the k. k. polytechnic institute, today's TU Vienna, where he was rector from 1874 to 1875 before being appointed director of the Natural History Museum, which was then under construction, a year later.
The 21st century also knows scientific careers that began on the high seas. On November 16, 2011, Patrick Grunert (then at the University of Graz), who had just finished his dissertation, boarded the JOIDES Resolution, a scientific drilling ship. The 28-year-old Grunert was one of the youngest scientists on the ship, which was sailing as part of the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Until January 16th he was on expedition 339, Mediterranean Outflow, between the Azores and Portugal in the Atlantic to examine fossil foraminifera (= single-celled organisms). In 2015 he received the EGU's Outstanding Young Scientist Award. Two years later he received a professorship for micropaleontology and paleoecology at the University of Cologne.
Anyone who thinks that long sea voyages are only for young scientists will be proven wrong by Georg Frauenfeld (1807–1873). To use today's language, the Viennese zoologist boarded the Novara as a 50-year-old senior scientist.
On July 3, 1862, the "Official Section" of the "Wiener Zeitung" read that the State Ministry, in agreement with the Police Ministry, had "issued the requested approval to found the Alpine Association." Among the men who applied was the then 23-year-old Edmund v. Mojsisovics (1839–1907), a trained lawyer who discovered his love for the mountains in Tyrol. This marked Mojsisovics' second educational path: he decided to study geology with Eduard Suess at the University of Vienna. The latter remembers the winter semester of 1861/62: "Now two young friends [...] wanted to found a club with him." The two were the 24-year-old experienced mountaineer Paul Grohmann (1838–1908) and the 20-year-old lawyer Guido v. Sommaruga (1842–1895). The constituent meeting of the Alpine Club took place on November 19, 1862 in the Green Hall of the Academy of Sciences. “Several ladies” were also there; At that time there were 630 members, today the Austrian Alpine Association (ÖAV) has over 600,000 members, 45 percent of whom are women.
Suess worked together with the botanist Eduard Fenzl, the geographer Friedrich Simony and Anton v. Ruthner (mountain climber and alpine writer) in the background as a mentor. Suess would have been happy to support the start-up, as he wanted to found an “alpine geological society” himself. He presented his concept in September 1856 at the 32nd meeting of German natural scientists and doctors in Vienna. Of course, the event was too big and the idea of an international association seemed suspect at the time, so the idea of Suess, who was 25 years old at the time, came to nothing. The later restriction to the Austrian Alps and the broad approach of the association's purpose from 1862, "to spread knowledge of the Alps, to promote love for them and to make traveling through them easier," were ultimately convincing. As an Alpine geologist, Mojsisovics later created important foundations that are still valid today and was deputy director (1892–1900) of the k. k. Geological Reichsanstalt.
"On March 18 (1863), Mayor Zelinka invited me to take part in the meetings of the city's water supply commission," Eduard Suess recalls in his "Memoirs." A year earlier, his “little book” about the geology of Vienna had been published. The title in full by the then 31-year-old author is unwieldy: "The soil of the city of Vienna according to its formation, nature and its relationships to civil life: A geological study", but it unmistakably shows the dependence of the residents on the subsoil. The following sentence sums it up: "It was the drainage of the morgues that, after a short run, was offered to the population of these districts [Margareten] as drinking water." His successful work on the construction of the high spring water pipeline, which was opened in October 1873, is well known. Before he took up his position as professor of geology at the University of Vienna in the fall of 1862, the young Suess became the founder of urban geology, urban geology in the international diction, with this book. The book also opened the door to his political career, which began in 1863 in the Vienna municipal council and then led him to the Reichsrat.
It would be more than 100 years before Heinrich Küpper presented another geology of Vienna in 1968. Küpper called the geological map of the city center of Suess "unsurpassed to this day". More than 50 years later, there is still a lot to add. The construction of the Vienna subway brought a lot of new knowledge, plus more than 55,000 drillings in the MA 29 subsoil register. (Thomas Hofmann, May 6, 2022)