Dr. Thomas Wayland Vaughan was a geologist, paleontologist, and oceanographer . Educated at Harvard (AB, AM, PhD), he was an authority on marine sediments, fossil and recent corals, and American Tertiary stratigraphy. He was a researcher with the United States Geological Survey (1894-1939), and then joined the United States National Museum where he served as Custodian of Madreporian Corals (1903–23), an Associate in Marine Sediments (1924-1942), and as an Associate in Paleontology (1942-1952). He was also Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from 1924-1936. His research focused on the study of corals and coral reefs, the investigation of larger foraminifera, and oceanography. Under his directorship, Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California, became a leading oceanographical research center.