Scientist Honoured

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31322, 18 March 1967, Page 1

Scientist Honoured

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 17. A New Zealand palaeontologist was one of 32 new Fellows of the Royal Society elected in London yesterday. He is Dr. Charles Alexander Fleming, chief palaeontologist of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, of Lower Hutt. The society said that Dr. Fleming was distinguished for his contributions to natural science in New Zealand, especially in the fields of geology, living and fossil mollusca, and ornithology. Dr. Fleming, aged 50, has held his present post since 1952. He is already a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and holds the degrees of bachelor of arts and doctor of science.

Among the other new fellows of the Royal Society are Christopher Sydney Cockerell, a consultant, of Hovercraft Developments, Ltd., and Alex Issigonis, technical director of the British Motor Corpora-

tlon, Birmingham, who played a large part in the development of B.M.C.’s front-wheel drive cars. To be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society was a distinction that had come to only nine New Zealanders in the last half century, said the president of the Royal Society of New Zealand (Professor J. A. R. Miles) today. Dr. Fleming was a key figure in the Royal Society of New Zealand, being president for four years until May, 1966. He made an outstanding contribution to the reconstruction of the society in 1965. He was elected to the New Zealand Royal Society in 1952 and in the same year was awarded his doctorate of science for his work in geology and palaeontology. He became vice-president of the society in 1960. Born at Auckland in 1916, Dr. Fleming was educated at King’s College and Auckland University. He graduated M.Sc. with first class honours in zoology, in 1941. He joined the New Zealand Geological Survey (D.5.1.R.) in 1940 as assistant geologist and in 1945 was

appointed palaeontologist. Later he became the chief palaeontologist, a position he holds at present. In 1940-49 he was president of the Ornithological Society of New Zealand. The Minister of Science (Mr Taiboys) tonight extended the Government’s congratulations to Dr. Fleming. Dr. Fleming, by his election, now joined an illustrious group of about 600 fellows. Other New Zealanders already Fellows of the society included Dr. A. C. Aitken, now professor of mathematics at Edinburgh University (elected 1936), Sir Ernest Marsden (elected 1946), and Dr. K. E. Bullen, now professor of applied mathematics at Sydney University (elected 1949). Dr. Fleming’s original researches in palaeontology, geology, and biology, published in six books and 116 scientific papers, had placed him in the forefront of New Zealand science, he said.