- Jake Hancock
Infobox_Scientist
name = John Michael "Jake" Hancock
image_width =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1928|8|10|mf=y
birth_place =Salisbury ,United Kingdom
death_date = death date and age|2004|3|4|1928|8|10|mf=y
death_place =Shaftesbury ,United Kingdom
residence =
nationality =
field =Sedimentology andStratigraphy
work_institution =Imperial College ,London
alma_mater =University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor = Maurice Black
doctoral_students = Andrew Gale
known_for = Geology of theCretaceous , appreciation ofWine
prizes = 1989Lyell Medal of theGeological Society of London
religion =
footnotes = Professor John Michael Hancock (1928-2004), known throughout the geological community as Jake, will be fondly remembered as a student of theCretaceous , of thesedimentary and mineralogical character of theChalk , as a world stratigrapher, as a "bon viveur" and an amiable, jovial, moustachioed eccentric.Jake was born on 10 August 1928 in
Salisbury ,Wiltshire , educated atDauntsey's School nearDevizes and was a national serviceman in the RAF between 1947 and 1949, before going up to theUniversity of Cambridge to readGeology andPetrology as an undergraduate.He graduated in 1952 and stayed on to work for his Doctorate under the supervision of Maurice Black. His thesis was entitled "The marginal facies of the British Chalk" and in 1955 he joined the junior academic staff at King's College, London. He became Senior Lecturer in 1970 and Reader in 1977.
In 1986 he moved to
Imperial College London where he was awarded the 1989Lyell Medal of theGeological Society of London and retired in 1993 toShaftesbury but continued to teach at Imperial as "Emeritus Professor".He was also an erudite teacher, bringing all aspects of science and general life to bear on his subject; one of his more generalist themes for the undergraduate geologist, being "How can the study of gardening benefit the geologist ?". He also had a long time commitment to the Working Men's College in north London.
His contributions were numerous and varied and included over 110 scientific papers in English and French and a pursuit of the study of the relationship between geology and
viniculture .He died of cancer on 4 March 2004. He was the subject of a memorial volume of the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association in 2006 (Vol 117, Part 2), on which some of this article is based.
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