AMERICAN HONOUR FOR N.Z. GEOLOGIST

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29776, 20 March 1962, Page 14

AMERICAN HONOUR FOR N.Z. GEOLOGIST

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, March 19. Professor D. S. Coombs, head of the Geology Department of the University of Otago, has won the Mineralogical Society of America’s award for 1962, and has been elected a Fellow of the society.

The award has been made for work carried out at the University of Otago on low grade metamorphism, the mineral and chemical changes that proceed in rocks when they are subjected to deep burial within the earth’s crust. This work helps towards an understanding of the evolution of the rocks making up substantial parts of the earth’s surface, including the greywacke and schist areas of New Zealand. Some of the research was carried out in association with Dr. W. S. Fyfe, formerly of the Chemistry Department of Otago University and now Associate Professor of Geology at Berkeley, California, and Dr. A. J. Ellis, now on the staff of the Dominion Laboratory, Lower Hutt, and Mr A. M. Taylor, now at Pennsylvania • State University. The United States National Science Foundation last year awarded 10,000 dollars to Professor Coombs to help the continuation of this research

by members of the geology departmen* at Otago. The work has also been supported by the New Zealand Universities Research Fund and recently by the Nuffield Foundation.

The award consists of life membership of the Mineralogical Society of America, and is given for outstanding published contributions to mineralogy or related sciences.

It is made without regard to nationality or even necessarily to membership of the Mineralogical Society of America.

So far 11 annual awards have been made, eight to recipients in the United States and three to recipients living in the United Kingdom.