Sad news this morning that Stanley Schumm, one of the all time greats of geomorphology, died at the weekend.  Schumm was ostensibly a fluvial geomorphologist who worked on the dynamics of river systems.  There is a great, though now slightly out of date, write-up of his contribution to the discipline on the IAG website.  Whilst he did not work explicitly on slopes for much of his career, many of the concepts that he developed have had a huge influence on work in this area.

Perhaps most importantly, everyone who works on natural systems should read and digest his book “To interpret the Earth: ten ways to be wrong” (shown to the right).  The work is summarised in a that can be accessed from this page (listed under week 15 in the course schedule).

As long ago as 1959 the AGU recognised the contribution of Stanley Schumm with the Horton Award.