Friday 29.August 2008
A new Geology Centre has been opened in Breiðdalsvík (Eastern Iceland) to commemorate the legacy of scientist George Patrick Leonard Walker.
Dr. Walker devoted the prime of his working life to improving the understanding of the geology of Iceland and the structure and character of the volcanic processes responsible for the existence of our volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The aim of the centre is to educate children of all ages in the fields of mineralogy and volcanology and make sure that his valuable contribution to these fields will not be forgotten in the coming years, decades and hopefully some centuries to come. We hope to draw to the Centre people from all parts of the world for shorter and longer stays.
The Centre puts emphasis on collaboration with universities and other educational institutions in order to transfer the skills that George Walker had to students of all levels, from playschool pupil to postgraduate researcher. It is the aim that school children of Eastern Iceland will be able to teach university graduates to recognize a good number of the 60 types of zeolites that George recognized casually in the field.
The scientist
George Patrick Leonard Walker was born on March 2nd 1926. He spent the first 12 years of his life in London but moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1939. He graduated from Wallace High School in Lisburn and got his B.Sc., in 1947, and M.Sc., in 1949, from Queen's University, Belfast. He was granted a Ph.D. in mineralogy from Leeds University in 1956 and his thesis title was “The amygdale-minerals in the Tertiary lavas of north-east Ireland”.
George became a lecturer at Imperial College, London, in 1954, and was appointed reader in 1964. He taught general geology, mineralogy and volcanology at Imperial College till 1978. He became a James Cook Research Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1978, with a chair at Auckland University. From there he moved to Hawaii where he held the newly founded Gordon Macdonald chair in volcanology from 1981 until his retirement to Gloucester in 1996. George's achievements in research were recognised worldwide by elections as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1975, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1987, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America also in 1987, and as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1988.
For his work in Iceland he was elected to honorary membership of the Iceland Science Society in 1968, received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1980 (a rare honour for a foreign national) and in 1988 received an Honorary D.Sc. from the University of Iceland. From the UK, he received a D.Sc. from the University of London in 1982, and the Lyell and Wollaston Medals of the Geological Society of London in 1982 and 1995, respectively. In New Zealand, he won the McKay Hammer Award of the Geological Society of New Zealand in 1982. Most fittingly, for one with George's career history, he was awarded the Thorarinsson Medal (the highest award in volcanology) from the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior in 1989.
Dr. Bjorn Gunnarsson, Rector of RES and Ómar Bjarki Smárason, geologist and former student of Dr. Walker.
Dr. Walker devoted the prime of his working life to improving the understanding of the geology of Iceland and the structure and character of the volcanic processes responsible for the existence of our volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The aim of the centre is to educate children of all ages in the fields of mineralogy and volcanology and make sure that his valuable contribution to these fields will not be forgotten in the coming years, decades and hopefully some centuries to come. We hope to draw to the Centre people from all parts of the world for shorter and longer stays.
The Centre puts emphasis on collaboration with universities and other educational institutions in order to transfer the skills that George Walker had to students of all levels, from playschool pupil to postgraduate researcher. It is the aim that school children of Eastern Iceland will be able to teach university graduates to recognize a good number of the 60 types of zeolites that George recognized casually in the field.
The scientist
George Patrick Leonard Walker was born on March 2nd 1926. He spent the first 12 years of his life in London but moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1939. He graduated from Wallace High School in Lisburn and got his B.Sc., in 1947, and M.Sc., in 1949, from Queen's University, Belfast. He was granted a Ph.D. in mineralogy from Leeds University in 1956 and his thesis title was “The amygdale-minerals in the Tertiary lavas of north-east Ireland”.
George became a lecturer at Imperial College, London, in 1954, and was appointed reader in 1964. He taught general geology, mineralogy and volcanology at Imperial College till 1978. He became a James Cook Research Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1978, with a chair at Auckland University. From there he moved to Hawaii where he held the newly founded Gordon Macdonald chair in volcanology from 1981 until his retirement to Gloucester in 1996. George's achievements in research were recognised worldwide by elections as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1975, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1987, a Fellow of the Geological Society of America also in 1987, and as a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1988.
For his work in Iceland he was elected to honorary membership of the Iceland Science Society in 1968, received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 1980 (a rare honour for a foreign national) and in 1988 received an Honorary D.Sc. from the University of Iceland. From the UK, he received a D.Sc. from the University of London in 1982, and the Lyell and Wollaston Medals of the Geological Society of London in 1982 and 1995, respectively. In New Zealand, he won the McKay Hammer Award of the Geological Society of New Zealand in 1982. Most fittingly, for one with George's career history, he was awarded the Thorarinsson Medal (the highest award in volcanology) from the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior in 1989.
Dr. Bjorn Gunnarsson, Rector of RES and Ómar Bjarki Smárason, geologist and former student of Dr. Walker.
Outside the Geology Centre: Dr. Bjorn Gunnarsson, Rector of RES; Pall Baldursson, Chairman of Breiddalsvik Municipality; and Dr. Lassi Heininen,
University of Lapland.
