The Louis B. Slichter papers contain the professional and personal papers of UCLA Professor Louis B. Slichter (1896-1978). Slichter was the first director of the Institute for Geophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles (1947-1965). Slichter’s research areas included submarine detection during both world wars, application of geophysics to commercial prospecting for ores, electrical conductivity and temperature distribution of the earth’s crust, variations in the gravity of the earth, earth tides and the effect of earth tides on seismology.

Louis B. Slichter was born on May 19, 1896 in Madison, Wisconsin. His parents were Charles Sumner Slichter, a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Mary Louise (Byrne) Slichter. He received his BA from the University of Wisconsin in 1917, having been tutored by Max Mason, a protégé of his father. During the First World War, as an ensign in the US Navy Reserve, he was assigned to do antisubmarine warfare research using sonic detection arrays.

16.2 linear feet (14 cartons, 2 boxes, 1 flat box, and 1 oversize flat box)

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