Sir Harold Jeffreys

Geophysicist, astronomer, and mathematician, born in Fatfield, Tyne and Wear, NE England, UK. He studied at Cambridge, where he became reader in geophysics (1931–46) and professor of astronomy (1945–58). In a wide-ranging scientific career, he investigated the effect of radioactivity on the cooling of the Earth, and postulated that the Earth's core is liquid. He studied earthquakes and monsoons, made a fresh estimate of the age of the Solar System, and re-calculated the surface temperatures of the outer planets. In mathematics he made contributions to probability theory and operational calculus.

Sir Harold Jeffreys (22 April 1891 – 18 March 1989) was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer.

He was born in Fatfield, County Durham, England.

He married another mathematician and physicist, Bertha Swirles (1903-1999), in 1940 and together they wrote Methods of Mathematical Physics.

Among his other contributions was a Bayesian approach to probability (also see Jeffreys prior), and the idea that the Earth's planetary core was liquid.

Jeffreys received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1937.

He should not be confused with William H.