Stanley Keith Runcorn(1922～1995)于12月5日在圣迭戈遇害身亡,他的不幸逝世使全世界的地球物理学家大为震惊。20世纪中叶关于地球磁场起源和大陆漂移理论是否成立这两个地球科学的决定性辩论中,Runcorn扮演了重要角色。1988年Runcorn从泰因河畔纽卡斯尔大学退休后,客座于阿拉斯加大学,他是从该校出发去 Stanley Keith Runcorn (1922-1995) was killed in San Diego on December 5, and his unfortunate death astonished geophysicists around the world. In the mid-twentieth century, Runcorn played an important role in the decisive debates on whether the origins of the Earth’s magnetic field and continental drift theory set forth the two geosciences. After retiring from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1988, Runcorn was a guest at the University of Alaska, where he departed