Type | Public |
---|---|
Established | 1851 (1907 as part of Imperial College) |
Parent institution | Imperial College London |
Students | approx. 800 |
Location | , UK 51°29′59″N0°10′33″W / 51.499796°N 0.175699°W |
Campus | Urban |
Colours | |
Affiliations | Imperial College Faculty of Engineering |
Website | www |
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. [1] The school as an organisation no longer exists, having been incorporated into the Faculty of Engineering since 2003. [2] 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. [3] The building and relevant student union still carry the name.
The Royal School of Mines was established in 1851, [4] as the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts. The School developed from the Museum of Economic Geology, a collection of minerals, maps and mining equipment made by Sir Henry De la Beche, and opened in 1841. The museum also provided some student places for the study of mineralogy and metallurgy. Sir Henry was the director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and when the collections outgrew the premises the museum and the survey were placed on an official footing, with government assistance.[ citation needed ]
The Museum of Practical Geology and the Government School of Mines and Science Applied to the Arts opened in a purpose-designed building in Jermyn Street in 1851. The officers of the Geological Survey became the lecturers and professors of the School of Mines. The Royal College of Chemistry was merged into it in 1853. The name was changed in 1863 to the Royal School of Mines, and was moved to South Kensington in 1872. In 1907, the school was incorporated into Imperial College of Science and Technology, but retained its own identity as a "constituent college".[ citation needed ]
In 2001 it was announced Imperial was to transition from a constituent college structure to a faculty structure, a move that was completed in 2003. [5] [2] The last Dean of the Royal School of Mines was Professor John Monhemius before the position was abolished. The Royal School of Mines has since come to refer to both the building in which former school was housed, as are its departments still today, and the student body representing students within those departments. [6]
Designed by Sir Aston Webb, the RSM building is classical in style with ionic pilasters. [7] It was erected between 1909 and 1913 specifically to house the school, which was previously resident in the Huxley Building on Exhibition Road, now the Henry Cole Wing of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The foundation stone was laid by King Edward VII on 8 July 1909.
The RSM was the last of many buildings that Webb designed for the Albertopolis area (including the Cromwell Road frontage of the V&A) and, some would argue, his least resolved. Constructed in Portland stone, the entrance is formed by a three-storey, semicircular niche, flanked by two memorials (sculpted by Paul Raphael Montford, 1916–1920) to Alfred Beit and Julius Wernher who were major benefactors to the school. [7] The western wing of the building is named after Webb, while the eastern end is named after the Goldsmiths' Company who helped to finance the building of the RSM.
The distinctively Edwardian and academic styling cues used in the building's architecture have led to the RSM appearing in a number of film and television productions:
The RSM Union represents the interests and organises events for the students studying at the departments associated with the Royal School of Mines. It is part of the wider college union, and has a formal constitution guiding its activities around:
The union runs sports teams, societies and events which span the academic year from October to July. The highlight of the sporting and social calendar is the annual Bottle Match against Camborne School of Mines, the second oldest rugby varsity match in the world. [8]
The RSM Union is also responsible for looking after the RSM Mascots, Davy and Clementine II. Davy is a 3-foot (0.91 m) tall, 130-pound (60 kg) davy lamp, a type of mining lamp, and has been a mascot since 1965. [9] Clementine II is a 1926 Morris T-Type One Ton Truck, bought by the RSM Union in 1960 to replace their previous motorised mascot Clementine I, a 1919 Aveling and Porter Traction Engine. [10]
Through societies such as the RSM Association and the Chaps Club, the RSM maintains a strong alumni network in the global mining community. [11]
Before it was incorporated into the Faculty of Engineering, the school was led by a dean. The deans were: [15]
Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche KCB, FRS was an English geologist and palaeontologist, the first director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, who helped pioneer early geological survey methods. He was the first President of the Palaeontographical Society.
Sir William Boyd Dawkins was a British geologist and archaeologist. He was a member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Curator of the Manchester Museum and Professor of Geology at Owens College, Manchester. He is noted for his research on fossils and the antiquity of man. He was involved in many projects including a tunnel under the Humber, a Channel Tunnel attempt and the proving of coal under Kent.
Mason Science College was a university college in Birmingham, England, and a predecessor college of the University of Birmingham. Founded in 1875 by industrialist and philanthropist Sir Josiah Mason, the college was incorporated into the University of Birmingham in 1900. Two students of the college, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, later went on to become prime ministers of the United Kingdom.
Sir Richard John Griffith Bt. FRS FRSE FGS LLD, was an Irish geologist, mining engineer and chairman of the Board of Works of Ireland, who completed the first complete geological map of Ireland and was the author of the valuation of Ireland; subsequently known as Griffith's Valuation.
Gabriel Auguste Daubrée MIF FRS FRSE was a French geologist, best known for applying experimental methods to structural geology. He served as the director of the École des Mines as well as the president of the French Academy of Sciences.
Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth was a British geologist.
Sir Albert Charles Seward FRS was a British botanist and geologist.
John Wesley Judd was a British geologist.
Prof William Johnson Sollas PGS FRS FRSE LLD was a British geologist and anthropologist. After studying at the City of London School, the Royal College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines he matriculated to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was awarded First Class Honours in geology. After some time spent as a University Extension lecturer he became lecturer in Geology and Zoology at University College, Bristol in 1879, where he stayed until he was offered the post of Professor of Geology at Trinity College Dublin. In 1897 he was offered the post of Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford, which he accepted.
Prof William Whitehead Watts FRS HFRSE FGS FMS LLD was a British geologist.
The Royal Geological Society of Cornwall is a geological society originally based in Penzance, Cornwall in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1814 to promote the study of the geology of Cornwall, and is the second oldest geological society in the world, after the Geological Society of London which was founded in 1807.
Sir Arthur Elijah Trueman was a British geologist.
The Wernerian Natural History Society, commonly abbreviated as the Wernerian Society, was a learned society interested in the broad field of natural history, and saw papers presented on various topics such as mineralogy, plants, insects, and scholarly expeditions. The Society was an offshoot of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and from its beginnings it was a rather elite organization.
John Graham Ramsay was a British structural geologist who was a professor at Imperial College London, the University of Leeds and the University of Zurich.
Herbert Harold Read FRS, FRSE, FGS, was a British geologist and Professor of Geology at Imperial College. From 1947-1948 he was president of the Geological Society.
Peter John Bell Clarricoats CBE, FREng, FRS was a British engineer who was Professor of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London.
Richard Hugh Sibson is a New Zealand structural geologist and emeritus professor at the University of Otago, who has received numerous honors and awards for his work in the field of earthquake research. He has caused a 'fundamental shift' in the interpretation of the relationship between earthquakes and fault zone geology and on the origin of fault-hosted mineral deposits.