GMT创始人之一Pål Wessel逝世
Pål Wessel，1959年8月31日出生，2024年3月26日逝世。
1991年，Paul Wessel 和 Walter H. F. Smith 发布了开源地学绘图软件——Generic Mapping Tools(GMT)。
Wessel (2024)提到：
Abstract The Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) is one of the most used toolsets in the Earth, Ocean, and Planetary sciences, originating as far back as the 1980s. It is an early example of an open‐source software code modeled after contemporaneous UNIX tools, and it was one of the first to employ PostScript as its graphics language and netCDF for binary files to ensure portability across different computing platforms. Here I trace the origin and evolution of GMT to the present day. The additions of MATLAB, Python, and Julia wrappers around the GMT C Application Program Interface (API) are now introducing GMT to numerous new and younger users and the platform shows no sign of diminishing after almost 40 years; in fact, usage continues to expand. Pursuing GMT for fun (and funding) has positively affected other areas of my scientific interests, and my new research modules continue to be added to GMT. The future holds many promises but will require formation and leadership of communities to steer and maintain the essential science tools that have served us well for many decades.
Plain Language Summary The Generic Mapping Tools originated back in the 1980s but was first publicly released in 1991. As graduate students at Lamont‐Doherty (Columbia University), we (Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith) rebelled against the awkward software and data formats used at that time and wrote new tools and formats from scratch to enable our dissertations. Over 30 years later the GMT software has a large global footprint and this has had a big positive effect on my research career. Doing something unique is a good pathway to a successful career, but what the pathway should be varies from generation to generation. Making contributions to a community of like‐minded users has been one of my greatest enjoyments.
Each generation of students faces different challenges. What advice might I give today that is relevant to current students? Try to do something your peers are not. … It’s difficult to know specifics, but try to position yourself to do something unique and novel, especially if you can do so within a community, which can be very rewarding.
Wessel, P. (2024). The origins of the generic mapping tools: From table tennis to geoscience. Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists, 5, e2023CN000231. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023CN000231