Honorary Fellows

Honorary Fellowship has been an important part of the Geological Society ever since it was founded. At the Society’s second meeting in 1807 it was decided to appoint no less than 42 ‘honorary members’ – despite the fact that there were only 13 members of the Society at the time. Honorary members brought the Society prestige, and provided a vital link with the scientific progress happening in their own areas.

Whilst now, Honorary Fellows provide a world-wide network, in the early nineteenth century communication was difficult enough within the British Isles, and all of the original 42 were from Britain. Early appointees included the physician Thomas Beddoes – more famous now for his work with Humphrey Davy on gases, and friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge – and Robert Jameson, whose lectures on geology at Edinburgh first inspired the young Charles Darwin to pursue the subject.

As the Society began to extend its reach further, ‘foreign members’ began to be appointed. As with honorary members, their role was to provide an insight into the geological happenings in their own area, giving the Society a global reach.

Today, Honorary Fellows fulfil this role, by representing the Society from locations across the world – including the UK. Honorary Fellows are recognised for their achievements, not only in science, but in acting as ambassadors for geological science and promoting its aims to the wider public. View the list of Honorary Fellows.

How to nominate

If you wish to nominate someone for Honorary Fellowship, please complete the nomination form below and return to stephanie.jones@geolsoc.org.uk. Nominations must be proposed and seconded by Fellows of the Geological Society.

The nomination will be placed before the Awards Committee, chaired by the President, which will decide whether the nomination meets the criteria agreed by Council in January 2009 that “Honorary Fellowship should be conferred on individuals from any country in the world including the UK, who have rendered signal service to science, and geoscience in particular, or who have the potential to render such service from their positions in the wider world; and who by association with the Society send out a clear message about the Society’s strategic aims and objectives.”

Once agreed the nominee will be notified that they are being put forward for election prior to advertisement in Geoscientist and election, barring objections, at an Ordinary General Meeting.

Elected Honorary Fellows in 2011

A new Honorary Fellow was elected at the Ordinary General Meeting on 28 September 2011.

Prof Peter Barrett

Peter Barrett is Professor of Geology at Victoria University, Wellington and was the founding Director of the Antarctic Research Centre there (1973-2007). He has had a long and distinguished career in unravelling Antarctic geological history, in his early years studying the Gondwana stratigraphy of the Transantarctic Mountains. A paper, published in Science in 1968 and reported in Time magazine, recorded his discovery of the first tetrapod remains in Antarctica, supporting the theory of continental drift. In 1972 Peter joined the first DSDP leg to the Antarctic, coring the Antarctic continental shelf for its geological history. He went on to develop further projects to drill the Antarctic margin for understanding ice sheet behaviour since its inception around 34 million years ago. The results provide a guide to its likely behaviour in the face of projected future global warming. He was for many years New Zealand’s representative on the SCAR Working Group on Geology and also in SCAR’s Group of Specialists on Environmental Affairs and Conservation. He was also first head of the New Zealand delegation to the Antarctic Committee for Environmental Protection. In 2006 he was awarded the SCAR President’s Medal for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Antarctic Science. He has done much to bring Antarctic science to a wider public audience, including a BBC programme on the history of the Antarctic ice sheet, and to emphasise the importance of Antarctic science in a global context. He is currently Deputy Director, New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute.

Four Honorary Fellows were elected at the Ordinary General Meeting on 13 April 2011.

Prof Maria Beatriz Aguirre-Urreta

Professor Aguirre-Urreta is a leading Argentine specialist on Charles Darwin's researches in South America, which resulted in joint editorship of a special volume of Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina and joint authorship of an article in Geoscientist in 2009. She has been invited to Alexandria, Egypt, as a key-note speaker in the world-wide conference on Darwin Now, where she presented a review of Darwin’s research in South America. Soon after her graduation she start studying the relationship of the ammonite fauna and early links between South Africa and South America, research that received the Hutchinson award in the International Geological Congress, Washington. She is an expert in Cretaceous ammonoids of the Andes and has collaborated in research for over 25 years with Professor Rawson (a Fellow of the Society), both in Argentina and the UK, and particularly in relation to fundamental studies of the Neuquén Basin. This was significantly supported by two major grants from The British Council. Professor Aguirre-Urreta spent six months at University College London in 1988, and has made frequent return visits to the UK. She is an active contributor to the International Subcommission on Cretaceous Stratigraphy and was a voting member for nine years.

Prof Maarten de Wit

Maarten de Wit is one of Africa’s most distinguished earth scientists whose research interests span geodynamics, tectonics and stratigraphy, early earth processes and the evolution of the Gondwana supercontinent. Despite his European birth, he has become an ambassador for the entire continent. His promotion of the ‘Africa Alive Corridors’ programme is inspirational, as it embraces science, culture, landscape in a positive, educational, pan-African context and is a genuine attempt to embrace all African society. He is Philipson Stow Professor of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Cape Town, 1989-present and was Founder and first Director, Centre for Interactive Graphical Computing of Earth Systems (CIGCES), University of Cape Town. He is also Director, Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON).

Professor de Wit has numerous long-term contacts with both the Society and the UK.

Dr Meave Leakey

Dr Meave Leakey is an outstanding figure in the rarefied, and male-dominated, world of fossil monkey and early hominid evolution research. She is particularly distinguished by her many years of dedicated field work, backed by a substantial body of high-quality publications. She has been Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, New York since 1996 and since 1989 has provided distinguished leadership of field expeditions in Kenya, focusing on deposits from 8 to 1.3 Ma, leading to major discoveries of earliest hominids, including Australopithecus anamensis and the human ancestor Kenyanthropus platyops. The UCL 2004 citation for Doctor of Science (honoris causa) read:

’Dr Leakey is well known for her pioneering work with the Turkana Basin Research Project in Kenya, discovering evidence of our earliest human ancestors. She is a research associate in the Palaeontology Division of the National Museums of Kenya, and has contributed more to the world’s understanding of the early phases of human evolution in eastern Africa than any other individual.’

Dr Sadrack Félix Toteu

Dr Toteu spent most of his scientific career at the Centre for Geological and Mining Research in Cameroon, while visiting from time to time universities in Europe and USA. From 2007, he visited a few universities in southern Africa (Botswana, Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan in Port Elizabeth) before joining UNESCO in 2010 as the Earth Sciences Specialist of the Nairobi office. He served as the Vice President (2001-2004) and President (2004-2008) of the Geological Society of Africa for Central Africa. He is Deputy Secretary General for Africa of the Commission of the Geological Map of the World and was a Member of the Board of the International Year of Planet Earth. He is also served as a Member of the Nominating Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (2008-2011). Dr Toteu is an experienced international scientist and an accomplished scientific diplomat on behalf of African Earth Science. He has made substantial contributions to knowledge of the chronostratigraphy of the Pan-African Belt, both within and beyond Cameroon, ore deposits in Central Africa and is a leading scientist on the Tectonic Map of Africa.