Robert Mallet

Robert Mallet (1810 to 1881) was an Irish geophysicist, civil engineer and inventor whose pioneering research on earthquakes earns him a reputation as the father of seismology. Born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College, he joined his father's iron foundry and helped build it into one of the largest engineering firms in Ireland, which supplied ironwork for railways, the Fastnet Rock lighthouse and a swing bridge over the Shannon. He was elected to the Royal Irish Academy at twenty two, and support from the British Association for the Advancement of Science financed much of his seismic research. He received the Telford Medal in 1859, the Cunningham Medal in 1862 and the Wollaston Medal in 1877, and became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1854.