Presentation of the 1965 Arthur L. Day Medal to Walter H. Munk

I was asked last night "Who is Walter Munk?". Walter Munk has never published in our Bulletin. This may be the first meeting of our Society he has attended. His membership I believe, begins today. Yet Arthur L. Day would have been pleased with the selection of Walter Munk as the 1965 Day Medalist—and for good reason. Walter Munk's interests and contributions range from oceanography to the mechanical properties of the earth. He brings a fresh point of view to classic problems and opens new fields. His approach varies with the subject. It is experimental when new data are needed; Munk will not hesitate to conceive and build in his own laboratory, as he is now doing, a mid-ocean tide gage, displacement meters, strain and tiltmeters, to measure tectonic movements. His approach is also theoretical and numerical when data remain to be analyzed or explained. Munk was among the first in the earth sciences to exploit high speed electronic computers.