It is shown that the conductivity profile of a layered earth can be obtained directly (noniteratively) from one-dimensional magnetotelluric observations. The approach we use is based on the Born approximation to the electric field integral equation. We apply the inversion algorithm to two data sets. The first one is analytic, and we are able to show analytically all the steps in the inversion algorithm. The resulting conductivity profile is an adequate approximation to the actual profile. The second data set contains the apparent resistivities from a particular field site at 21 frequencies, and the resulting conductivity profile compared adequately with well log measurements. The results that we obtained are promising enough to consider the direct inversion of two-dimensional data.