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Former names | Amalgamation of the Department of Geology, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology |
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| Established | c. 1731 |
| Head of Department | Marie Edmonds (2024- |
| Location | Cambridge , United Kingdom 52°12′11″N0°7′20″E / 52.20306°N 0.12222°E |
| Website | www |
The Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge is the University of Cambridge's Earth Sciences department. First formed around 1731, the department incorporates the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. [1]
The department's history can be traced back to 1731 when the 1st Woodwardian Professor of Geology was appointed, in accordance with the bequest of John Woodward. The present Department of Earth Sciences was formed by an amalgamation of the Department of Geology, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in 1980. When the three departments were amalgamated the Chair of Geophysics and Chair of Mineralogy and Petrology, along with the Woodwardian Professorship, were assigned to the newly formed Department of Earth Sciences.
The main location of the department is at the Downing Site, Downing St. The Bullard Laboratories, located in West Cambridge on Madingley Rd is a satellite department of the main building. The department incorporates the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences [2] and the Godwin Laboratory.
The department is the home of the Sedgwick Club, which was founded in memory of Adam Sedgwick in 1880, and is the oldest student run geological society in the world. [3]
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The Woodwardian Professor of Geology is a professorship held in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. It was founded by John Woodward in 1728 under the title of Professor of Fossils. Woodward's will left to the University a large collection of fossils and also dictated that the professor should be elected by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Ely, the President of the Royal Society, the President of the Royal College of Physicians, the Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, and the University Senate.
The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioengineering are also housed within the building. The school as an organisation no longer exists, having been incorporated into the Faculty of Engineering since 2003. Today the Royal School of Mines refers to both the departments associated with the former school, and the Grade II listed Edwardian building by Sir Aston Webb, which is viewed as a classic of academic architecture. The building and relevant student union still carry the name.
Alfred Harker FRS was an English geologist who specialised in petrology and interpretive petrography. He was lecturer in petrology at the University of Cambridge for many years, and carried out field mapping for the Geological Survey of Scotland and geological studies of western Scotland and the Isle of Skye. He and other British geologists pioneered the use of thin sections and the petrographic microscope in interpretive petrology.
Thomas McKenny Hughes was a Welsh geologist. He was Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge University.
William Bernard Robinson King was a British geologist.
William Noel Benson FRS FRGS was an English-born research geologist and academic active first in Australia and then New Zealand. After studying geology at the University of Sydney, Benson worked temporarily at the University of Adelaide before returning to Sydney as a demonstrator. After winning an 1851 Exhibition Science Scholarship in 1910 he left Sydney to study at the University of Cambridge, where he worked until 1913. He returned to Sydney in 1914 as the Macleay Fellow in Geology, leaving in 1917 to become Chair of the Geology Department at the University of Otago, where for many years he was the only lecturer. During his lifetime he published over 100 papers and won several awards, including the Clarke Medal and the Lyell Medal. He died on 20 August 1957 following his retirement from academia in 1951.
Ekhard Karl Hermann Salje, FRS is an Emeritus Professor, and formerly Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University.
The Faculty of Geology is part of the School of Sciences in National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgwick Museum is the oldest of the eight museums which make up the University of Cambridge Museums consortium.
The Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy (DMSM) is a large research and teaching division of the University of Cambridge. Since 2013 it has been located in West Cambridge, having previously occupied several buildings on the New Museums Site in the centre of Cambridge.
Stuart Olof Agrell was an optical mineralogist and a pioneer in applications of the electron microprobe to petrology. His involvement as a principal investigator in the analysis of Moon rocks collected in the Apollo program brought him to the attention of the British media and public.
Jonathan David Blundy FRS is Royal Society Research Professor at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford and honorary professor at the University of Bristol.
James Anthony Jackson CBE FRS is Emeritus Professor of Active Tectonics and formerly head of Bullard Laboratories, and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University. He made his name in geophysics, using earthquake source seismology to examine how continents are deformed. His central research focus is to observe the active processes shaping our continents.
William Alexander (Alex) Deer FRS was a distinguished British geologist, petrologist and mineralogist.
Sir Alan Hugh Cook FRS was an English physicist who specialised in geophysics and metrology. He worked at the University of Cambridge, National Physical Laboratory, and the University of Edinburgh. From 1977-79 Cook was President of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Bernard (Bernie) Wood is a British geologist, and professor of mineralogy and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. He specializes in the thermodynamics of geological systems, using experimental techniques. He is a prominent figure in the field of experimental petrology, having received multiple awards throughout his career and taught at several universities worldwide.
The Department of Earth Sciences is the Earth Sciences department of the University of Oxford, England, which is part of the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division. The department is based in the Earth Sciences building on South Parks Road in the Science Area.
The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Manchester is one of the oldest earth and environmental science departments in the UK. The department takes roughly 100 new undergraduates and 140 postgraduates each year, and employs 90 members of academic staff which include 41 postdoctoral researchers, 27 technical staff, and 20 administrative staff.
Marian Barbara Holness is a Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge.
The Professorship of Mineralogy and Petrology is a statutory professorship at the University of Cambridge. It was created in 1931 following the simultaneous retirements of Alfred Harker, from the post of Reader in Petrology in the Department of Geology, Cambridge; and of Arthur Hutchinson, Professor of Mineralogy. A committee of the Council of the Senate of the university proposed that these two posts be discontinued, and the remit of the Professorship of Mineralogy be expanded to include the disciplines of petrology and crystallography. The Professorship was established in the newly created Department of Mineralogy and Petrology. The first incumbent was Prof Cecil Edgar Tilley, who was appointed in 1931. Tilley was succeeded in 1961 by William Alexander Deer. Since 1980, and following the appointment of Ron Oxburgh, the Professorship has been associated with the Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge. The other statutory professorships in this department are the Woodwardian Professor of Geology, the Professor of Geophysics, established in 1966, and the recently endowed BP Foundation McKenzie Professorship of Earth Sciences, established in 2010.
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