Кингсли Данхэм: британдық геолог және минералог ғалымы

British geologist

Sir Kingsley Charles Dunham (2 January 1910 – 5 April 2001) was one of the leading British geologists and mineralogists of the 20th century. He was a Professor of Geology at the University of Durham from 1950–71. He was later Professor Emeritus from 1967–2001. He was director of the British Geological Survey from 1967–75.

Dunham was born in Sturminster Newton, Dorset and moved at an early age with his family to Durham. He attended the Durham Johnston School (then a Grammar School) and then won a Foundation Scholarship to Hatfield College, Durham, graduating with a first class degree in Geology in 1930 at a time when Arthur Holmes was professor. A gifted musician, Dunham was Organ Scholar during his undergraduate days. Following graduation, he pursued research into the Pennine Orefield of the North of England, under the supervision of Arthur Holmes. He graduated with a PhD in 1932 on the subject of Ore deposits of the north Pennines.

Dunham studied at Harvard University under a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship, which led to a master's degree. He was created a Fellow of St John's College, Durham. In 1967, his career culminated in accepting the directorship of the British Geological Survey, and like his time at Durham, he successfully guided that institution through a period of rapid growth into areas such as geophysics, oceanography and geochemistry. He was knighted in 1972. Dunham also received honorary doctorates from more than ten universities, both at home and abroad. He was awarded the Wollaston Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1976. Between 1990 and 2012, the British Geological Survey's headquarters complex, in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, was named the Kingsley Dunham Centre in his honour. (It is now the Environmental Science Centre.) The relocation and consolidation of the BGS's various, disparate branches to the Keyworth site was one of the lasting legacies of Dunham's time as Director. The Centre opened in 1976, shortly after Dunham's retirement.

In his later years his eyesight failed him until he was totally blind. However, he still attended the weekly Durham meetings (aided by his friend and colleague Dr Tony Johnson), held by the Arthur Holmes society. Dunham's son, Ansel, who predeceased him, was Professor of Geology at the University of Hull and the University of Leicester.