Reinout Willem van Bemmelen Dutch geologist Date of Birth: 14.04.1904 Country: Netherlands

1. Early Life and Education
2. Career in Geological Mapping and Volanology
3. Post-War Contributions and Retirement

Early Life and Education

Reinout Willem van Bemmelen, a renowned Dutch geologist, was born into a geological family in the Dutch East Indies. His father, Willem van Bemmelen, served as the director of a magnetic, meteorological, and seismological observatory. From 1920 to 1927, van Bemmelen pursued mining engineering at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, eventually earning his doctorate in 1927 for his research on the geology of the Cordillera Betica.

Career in Geological Mapping and Volanology

After receiving his doctorate, van Bemmelen furthered his studies in volcanology in Naples. He returned to the Dutch East Indies, where he conducted geological surveys and initiated the mapping of several regions in Java and Sumatra. In 1933-35, he delved into the study of soil science at the Vienna University of Technology.

Van Bemmelen's primary scientific interests centered around volcanology (magma and pyroclastic rocks), structural geology, and tectonics, particularly mobile tectonics. During World War II, amidst the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, he and his wife endured three years in a concentration camp. Notably, he was one of the few specialists allowed to continue their work by the Japanese, resulting in the publication of his research on Indonesian volcanoes in 1943.

Post-War Contributions and Retirement

Following the war, van Bemmelen relocated to the Netherlands with his wife. The Dutch government commissioned him to restore the geological records of the Indonesian archipelago, which he believed had been lost during the war. However, he later discovered that his manuscripts had survived. By 1949, he reconstructed and published his seminal work, "The Geology of Indonesia."

Van Bemmelen subsequently held a professorship at Utrecht University and served as a consultant for Royal Dutch Shell. He retired in 1969. After the passing of his wife in 1983, he relocated to Austria, where he passed away shortly thereafter.