CAMPUS ADVISORY

FROM:                 UAF University Relations

DATE:            Tuesday, December 5, 1995

UAF Professor of Physics and Geophysics Stanley Keith Runcorn was found dead in a San Diego, Calif. hotel room today. According to the San Diego police, he was found at approximately 11:30 a.m. this morning, the apparent victim of a robbery. Runcorn was in the city visiting friends and was on his way to the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco.

Runcorn was the Sydney Chapman Endowed Chair in the Natural Sciences and had worked at UAF since 1989. He was internationally recognized in the field of geophysics for his research on the Earth and the moon’s magnetic fields.

Runcorn was honored by such groups as the American Geophysical Union and the Royal Astronomical Society, from which he received the Gold Medal in 1984.

Runcorn earned his doctoral degree from Manchester, England, in 1949 and was honored by induction as a Fellow of the Royal Society, England, in 1965. He was granted honorary doctoral degrees of science by Utrecht University, Gent University, Paris University and Bergen University.

Runcorn was born in Southport, Lancashire, England in 1922.

Funeral service arrangements are pending.

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CONTACT: College of Natural Sciences Dean's Office, (907)474-7608.

SSB/12-5-95/96-36 campus.adv.