OTAGO SCHOOL OF MINES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25736, 23 February 1949, Page 6

OTAGO SCHOOL OF MINES

FIRST PROFESSOR OF COALMINING > APPOINTMENT CONFIRMED (P.A.) DUNEDIN. February 22. The first professor of coalmining at the Otago School of Mines will be Professor J. Ivon Graham, a 60-year-old Irishman, whose appointment was confirmed by the council of the University of Otago to-day. Since last April. Professor Graham has been adviser on scientific aspects of underground problems to the National Coal Board in Britain, a post to which he was appointed after being director of environmental research for the board. “The university and industry in New Zealand are fortunate in being able to attract so well known an authority,” said Dr. Gordon Williams, director of the School of Mines. “The Otago School of Mines has always had a high reputation in (he metal mining world, and. with Professor Graham’s appointment. its reputation in the coalmining world will become equally high.” Professor Graham plans to visit America on his way to New Zealand to renew his former association with the Bureaux of .Mines at Washington and Pittsburgh, and secure firsthand knowledge of recent developments in his special interests. His duties at the School of Mines will include some specialised teaching in coalmining, but he will be free for most of his time to study New Zealand coalmining conditions and to initiate research, in co-ordination with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.