Alfred Harker (petrologist)

Alfred Harker FRS (February 19, 1859 - July 28, 1939) was an English geologist who specialised in petrology and interpretive petrography. He worked for the Geological Survey of Scotland and conducted extensive surveying 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.

Education and career

Harker's father was the Yorkshire corn merchant Portas Hewart Harker, his mother Ellen Mary Harker. He attended Hull and East Riding College, and the private Clewar House School (Windsor) before enrolling as an undergraduate at St. John's College (Cambridge) from where he graduated with an M.A. in January 18, 1882. In 1884 he held the post of Demonstrator in the Geology Department under Thomas McKenny Hughes (whom he regarded his mentor), as Lecturer at Newnham College in 1892 at St. Johns College, as University Lecturer in 1904, and as Reader in Petrology in 1918.

Honors and awards

In 1907, he was awarded the society's Murchison Medal, in 1922 he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London, to which he had served as president from 1916-1918, and in 1935 the Royal Medal of the Royal Society (Fellow since 1902). The University of Edinburgh awarded him with an honorary doctoral degree in law in 1919. Harker Glacier on South Georgia IslandUnited States Geological Survey (2002). [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnisarchive/webant.antquery?fname=Harker&variant=no&ftype=&elev1=&elev2=&descr=&ndeg=&nmin=&wdeg=&wmin=&wdir=W&edeg=&emin=&edir=W&sdeg=&smin=&tab=y "Feature Name: Harker"] . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved May 10, 2007.] , Mount Harker in Antarctica, and Dorsa HarkerUnited States Geological Survey (2007). [http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/jsp/FeatureNameDetail.jsp?feature=61765 "Moon: Dorsa Harker"] . Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature Feature Information. Retrieved June 20, 2007.] , a feature on the Moon, are named after him. The mineral harkerite, first found on the Isle of Skye, is named after him. After his retirement, he was given the post of honorary curator of the Cambridge Petrological Museum, and their extensive rock collection bears his name.

Works

*"Petrology for Students", 1895, Cambridge University Press
*"The Tertiary Igneous Rocks of Skye", 1904, Geological Survey of Scotland Memoir
*"The Natural History of Igneous Rocks", 1909, Macmillan

References

;Cited References

;General References

*Young, Davis A., (2003) "Mind Over Magma: The Story of Igneous Petrology", Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10279-1
*Seward, A.C. and Tilley, C.E. (1940) "Alfred Harker. 1859-1939" (Obituary), Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 3(8): 196-216.
* Bragg, William (1939) "Address of the President Sir William Bragg, O.M., at the Anniversary Meeting, 30 November 1939", Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences 173(954):286-312 (Dec 18, 1939). Obituary pp. 294-295.