physics

G. Michael Purdy

G. Michael Purdy is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand G. Michael Purdy rather than just read about it. In short: Graham Michael "Mike" Purdy is a British geophysicist and oceanographer who specializes in marine seismology. He retired as the Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University on 1 January 2020.

Key takeaways

G. Michael Purdy belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect G. Michael Purdy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of G. Michael Purdy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Graham Michael "Mike" Purdy is a British geophysicist and oceanographer who specializes in marine seismology. He retired as the Executive Vice President for Research at Columbia University on 1 January 2020. Previously, he was the Director of Columbia's Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). Currently, he is a Professor Emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Education Purdy received a B.S. with honors in 1969 and an M.S. in 1970 from Imperial College of the University of London, then received a PhD in marine geophysics from the University of Cambridge in 1974.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution After leaving Cambridge, Purdy joined WHOI in 1974 as a Post Doctoral Scholar. In 1991, he became Chairman of the Department of Geology and Geophysics (G&G), a position he held until leaving WHOI in 1995 for the NSF.

National Science Foundation From 1995 to 2000, Purdy served as the Director of the Division of Ocean Sciences in the Geosciences Directorate of the NSF. He oversaw a breadth of research activities, including the international Ocean Drilling Program and the foundation-wide Life in Extreme Environments (LExEn) initiative, which he established in 1997 [1].

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory At LDEO, Purdy has worked to further the department's role in The Earth Institute at Columbia University, an inter-departmental research institute founded in 1995 to address the complex social, economic, and environmental implications of the earth sciences. LDEO is the largest component of this alliance, and Purdy has taken an interest in interdisciplinary approaches to the traditional earth science work of the department. For example, he began the Director’s Series on the Science of Diversity, bringing researchers in the social sciences to LDEO to speak on issues such as gender differences in scientific research productivity. He has dedicated particular attention to the problem of climate change, particularly as highlighted by the work of fellow LDEO scientist Wally Broecker.

Awards and honors Maurice Ewing Medal (American Geophysical Union, U.S. Navy), 2006

References

External links LDEO home page Earth Institute home page LDEO Page on Maurice Ewing Medal Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Announcement of appointment as director of LDEO LDEO "Letter from the Director" ISI Highly-Cited Researcher Page QuickTime video of Purdy discussing the "need for a global perspective in science research and training" from The Earth Institute[2]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with G. Michael Purdy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what G. Michael Purdy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to G. Michael Purdy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about G. Michael Purdy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of G. Michael Purdy

In research: G. Michael Purdy appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses G. Michael Purdy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: G. Michael Purdy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Alumni of Imperial College London, Alumni of the University of Cambridge, British expatriate academics in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for G. Michael Purdy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study G. Michael Purdy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what G. Michael Purdy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain G. Michael Purdy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is G. Michael Purdy in simple terms?

Why does G. Michael Purdy matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study G. Michael Purdy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on G. Michael Purdy.