Geophysical Institute-Alaska University— Wilson 171 



the District Court located in Fairbanks was elected President 

 of the College and assumed his duties. In September 1922, the 

 College was dedicated and opened with six students. After this 

 very humble beginning, the College grew slowly. In 1935 by 

 Territorial Act it became the University of Alaska, a land grant 

 institution. The University now sponsors, either on its own 

 resources or jointly with various Territorial and Federal agen- 

 cies, a Summer School, an Agricultural Experiment Station 

 (three branches— Fairbanks, Matanuska, Petersburg), a Coopera- 

 tive Agricultural Extension Service, Veterans-on-the-Farm train- 

 ing, a Mining Extension Service, and gives resident instruction 

 at the main Military Establishments in Alaska (Ladd Field, 

 Eielson Air Force Base, Elmendorf and Richardson Fields at 

 Anchorage, and the Naval Base at Kodiak), and cooperates 

 and participates in research directly or by loan of equipment 

 in many fields. Of these the most significant at present is 

 geophysics. 



Early Research in Geophysics at the University of Alaska 



Research in Geophysics at the University of Alaska was initi- 

 ated in 1929 by a grant of $10,000 from the Rockefeller Founda- 

 tion for auroral height measurements. During the second Inter- 

 national Polar Year, 1932-1933, the University of Alaska was 

 designated a first-order station in a world wide network of 

 stations engaged in measurements of various kinds: electric 

 potential of the earth and its atmosphere, changes in terrestrial 

 magnetism, heights of the aurora, random properties of the 

 ionosphere and intensities of seismological disturbances. From 

 1934-1941 a portion of the polar year program was continued 

 with the assistance of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Navy 

 Department, the Carnegie Institution of Washington and 

 others. During his period as Instructor at the University of 

 Alaska, Henry K. Joesting, now Chief of the Geophysics Sec- 

 tion of the United States Geological Survey, made an extensive 

 series of magnetometric mineral surveys for the Territorial 

 Department of Mines. In 1941 the Carnegie Institution asked 

 for the cooperation of the University of Alaska in undertaking 



