Milo Backus

Backus was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Milo Morlan Backus II and Dora Ette Dare. He attended and graduated from Thornton Township High School.^[1] After graduating, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his PhD degree in 1956 in geochemistry.^[2] His brother George was also a geophysicist.^[3]

Backus served as the Wallace E. Pratt Professor of Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin from 1975 to 1998.^[2][4][5] During his years as a professor, in 1982, he and geologist Robert L. Folk were named the Dave P. Carlton Centennial Professor by the University of Texas System Board of Regents.^[6]

Backus died on May 25, 2018, in Dallas, Texas, at the age of 86.^[7][8]