Abstract
Albert Johannsen was born December 3, 1871, at Belle Plaine, Iowa, and died at the age of 90 on January 11, 1962, at Winter Park, Florida. Johannsen received a B.S. degree in architecture from the University of Illinois in 1894. Following graduation he worked at several jobs: architect's assistant, furniture designer, field assistant with the U. S. Geological Survey at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and assistant city engineer in Salt Lake City. He returned to school and received a B.S. in geology from the University of Utah in 1898. He then went to the Johns Hopkins University where he received his Ph.D. in petrography in 1903. His dissertation which dealt with the serpentines of Maryland was an outgrowth of a study which he made for the Maryland Geological Survey. Upon completion of his graduate studies he joined the staff of the U. S. Geological Survey, a connection which he retained until 1925. His work for the Survey began in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Later, he worked for the Survey in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He was Acting Chief of the section on Petrology from 1907 to 1909. In 1909 he went to the University of Chicago where he succeeded J. P. Iddings. The next year he became a permanent member of the faculty as Assistant Professor. Johannsen was promoted to Associate Professor in 1914 and became a full professor in 1918, a position which he held until his retirement in 1937.
