Kaplan, Joseph

Hungarian-American geophysicist, heavily involved in efforts in the 1950s to launch the first satellite, served as the chair of the US National Committee for the International Geophysical Year, 1953-1963.

Joseph Kaplan was born in Tapolcza, Hungary, and came to the U.S. in 1910. He trained as a physicist at the Johns Hopkins University and worked on the faculty of the University of California-Berkeley from 1928 until his retirement in 1970. He directed the university's Institute of Geophysics, later the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, from the time of its creation in 1944. Kaplan was heavily involved in efforts in the 1950s to launch the artificial first Earth satellite, serving as the chair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year, 1953-1963.