physics

Lisa Tauxe

Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe rather than just read about it. In short: Lisa Tauxe is a geophysicist, professor and former department chair at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Tauxe is a researcher and international authority on the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field and applications of paleomagnetism to geological problems.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lisa Tauxe is a geophysicist, professor and former department chair at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Tauxe is a researcher and international authority on the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field and applications of paleomagnetism to geological problems.

Career

Tauxe's contributions include the study of remanent magnetism in geological and archaeological materials, as well as co-founding a collaborative data system for compiling and sharing geological magnetic data from around the globe, the Magnetics Information Consortium (MagIC). To facilitate paleomagnetic measurements, Tauxe uses a demagnetized space in San Diego. Tauxe is a leader in research that documents when the Earth's magnetic poles reversed. Because technology and electrical grids depend on the Earth's magnetic field to protect it from the Sun's magnetic storms, Prof. Tauxe's work has global significance. She pioneered paleointensity analysis of undersea basaltic glasses and copper slag residues found in archaeological sites, fundamentally changing the process of collecting magnetic field data and the volume of data available to study. Prof. Tauxe graduated from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in 1983. In 2014, Prof. Tauxe was awarded the prestigious Ben Franklin Medal for Earth and Environmental Science "[f]or the development of observational techniques and theoretical models providing an improved understanding of the behavior of, and variations in intensity of, the Earth's magnetic field through geologic time." As of 2014, Tauxe was the general secretary of the American Geophysical Union. Prof. Tauxe has authored two textbooks, over 250 academic papers, including 44 in AGU journals.

Advisory positions and distinctions Science advisory board of the Beijing Paleomagnetism and Geochronology Laboratory (2006 to present) Research Advisory Committee of the Institute for Rock Magnetism (2005–2007; 2022-2025). Magnetics Information Consortium Database Team and Meta-data Committee (2005 to present). Fellow of American Geophysical Union Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 2015 Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2016 Elected Foreign Member, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2025

Select awards Petrus Peregrinus Medal, 2023 Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2020) Arthur L. Day Medal, 2014 Benjamin Franklin Medal, 2014 George P. Woollard Award, Geological Society of America, 2003 The Antarctic Service Medal The John D. Fleming medal, American Geophysical Union

Personal life Tauxe has a brother, Dr. Robert Tauxe, who works at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

References

External links Lisa Tauxe publications indexed by Google Scholar

External links Tracking Variations in the Earth's Magnetic Field Lisa Tauxe, 2014 Laureate of the Franklin Institute of Earth and Environmental Science Women in Geosceince Panel Discussion

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lisa Tauxe

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe

In research: Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe 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: Lisa Tauxe is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American geophysicists, American scientists, Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lisa Tauxe in simple terms?

Why does Lisa Tauxe 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 Lisa Tauxe?

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 Lisa Tauxe.