T. Wayland Vaughan

Vaughan was one of five children born to Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughan and Annie R. Hope. He entered Tulane University in 1885 intending to enter the medical profession, but became interested in physical science and graduated with a Bachelor of Science. From 1889–1892, Vaughan taught physics and chemistry at Mount Lebanon, Louisiana. During this time he published his first papers on the mollusks and trees of northwest Louisiana and began collecting fossils. This led him to study biology at Harvard University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1893, a Master of Arts in 1894, and completing his Ph.D. in 1903 with a thesis titled Eocene and Oligocene Corals of the United States. Before receiving his doctorate, he also worked as an assistant geologist for the United States Geological Survey from 1894 to 1903. ==Career==

Vaughan participated in a number of geological surveys of the West Indies (1901 and 1914), Panama Canal Zone (1911), the Dominican and Haitian Republics (1919 to 1921), the Virgin Islands and eastern Puerto Rico (1919), and the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plains (1907–1923). Vaughan created programs in physical, chemical, and geological oceanography, augmented the biology program, and expanded the Institution's facilities. He retired in 1936 and was replaced by Harald Sverdrup. Throughout his career he also served on scientific committees under the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences. While serving on the Committee on Oceanography for the National Academy of Sciences in the 1930s, Vaughan favored the creation of an east-coast counterpart to the Scripps Institution, and the committee encouraged the Rockefeller Foundation to provide one million dollars to found the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. A smaller donation also went to the Oceanographic Laboratories at the University of Washington. ==Later life and legacy==

Vaughan received a number of awards and honorary degrees, including the Alexander Agassiz Medal and the Penrose Medal. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1917, the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1921, and the American Philosophical Society in 1923. In the 1930s Vaughan developed an interest in Asian art, learning the Japanese language while in his sixties and becoming a lecturer on Asian art. In 1933 he was given a private audience with Emperor Hirohito and presented with a cloisonné vase, and in 1940 was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun Third Class. ==Selected publications==

• • Corals and the formation of coral reefs, from the Smithsonian Report, 1917, pp189–276. • A geological reconnaissance of the Dominican republic, Washington DC, 1921. (With other authors) • Studies of American species of Foraminifera of the genus Lepidocyclina; Smithsonian Institution, 1933. • International Aspects of Oceanography: Oceanographic Data and Provisions for Oceanographic Research., Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci. (1937). ==References==