Alfred Rittmann

Alfred Rittmann was a Swiss volcanologist and petrographer, born in 1893 in Basel and died in 1980 in Piazza Armerina, Sicily. He earned his doctorate at the University of Geneva in 1922 for work on ultramafic rocks of the Ural Mountains, then joined the Volcanological Institute at Naples in 1926, and he served three consecutive terms as president of the International Association of Volcanology between 1954 and 1963. His 1962 book Volcanoes and Their Activity became a standard reference translated into five languages, and both Mount Rittmann in Antarctica and the mineral rittmannite are named for him.