The Department of Earth Sciences at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

is the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Earth Sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four sphere ...

department. First formed around 1731, the department incorporates the

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, is the geology museum of the University of Cambridge. It is part of the Department of Earth Sciences and is located on the university's Downing Site in Downing Street, central Cambridge, England. The Sedgw ...

History

The department's history can be traced back to 1731 when the 1st

Woodwardian Professor of Geology The Woodwardian Professor of Geology is a professorship held in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. It was founded by John Woodward in 1728 under the title of Professor of Fossils. Woodward's will left to the University ...

was appointed, in accordance with the bequest of

John Woodward John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports * John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer * John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer * Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer * Jo ...

. The present Department of Earth Sciences was formed by an amalgamation of the Department of Geology, Department of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology in 1980. The main location of the department is at the Downing Site, Downing St. The Bullard Laboratories, located in

West Cambridge West Cambridge is a university site to the west of Cambridge city centre in England. As part of the ''West Cambridge Master Plan'', several of the University of Cambridge's departments have relocated to the West Cambridge site from the centre ...

on Madingley Rd is a satellite department of the main building. The department incorporates the

and the Godwin Laboratory. The department is the home of the

Sedgwick Club The Sedgwick Club is the official student geological society at the University of Cambridge, and is the oldest student-run geological society in the world. It aims to promote the subject of geology among its members through regular talks and so ...

, which was founded in memory of

Adam Sedgwick Adam Sedgwick (; 22 March 1785 – 27 January 1873) was a British geologist and Anglican priest, one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Cambrian and Devonian period of the geological timescale. Based on work which he did on W ...

in 1880, and is the oldest student run geological society in the world.Sedgwick Club website
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Notable people

Fellows and Former Fellows

Simon Conway Morris Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) is an English palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and astrobiologist known for his study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian explosion. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in ...

FRS * Michael Bickle FRS * Marie Edmonds * Harry Elderfield FRS * David Hodell (

) * Timothy Holland FRS * Marian Holness FRS * James Jackson FRS CBE *

Nick McCave Ian Nicholas McCave (born 3 February 1941) is a British geologist, who was the Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences from 1985 to 2008 and a fellow of St John's College from 1986 to present ...

(Former

) * Dan McKenzie FRS CH *

Simon Redfern Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

* Ekhard Salje FRS *

Bob White FRS Robert (Bob) Stephen White (born 12 December 1952) is Professor of Geophysics in the Earth Sciences department at Cambridge University (since 1989) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society ( FRS) in 1994. He is Director of the Faraday Ins ...

* Eric Wolff FRS

Alumni

* Stuart Agrell * Sir David Attenborough CH * John Auden * George Band OBE * Derek Briggs FRS *

Euan Clarkson Euan N.K. Clarkson FRSE (born 1937) is a British palaeontologist and writer. Career Euan Clarkson studied geology at the University of Cambridge and had a long career as a palaeontologist at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Clarkson's most no ...

* Claire Craig CBE *

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

Gertrude Elles Gertrude Lilian Elles MBE (8 October 1872 – 18 November 1960) was a British geologist, known for her work on graptolites. Personal life Gertrude Elles was born on October 8, 1872. She was the youngest of six children. Every year the E ...

* Richard Fortey FRS * Sir Vivian Fuchs FRS * Alfred Harker FRS * W. Brian Harland * Dorothy Hill FRS * Ted Irving FRS * John E Marr FRS * Sir Mark Moody-Stuart *

Yin Yin Nwe Yin Yin Nwe (born c.1952) is a Burmese geologist. She has held important positions with UNICEF since 1991, and was appointed UNICEF Representative to China on 1 December 2006. Biography Yin Yin Nwe's father is Sao Saimong Mangrai, a member of ...

* Sanjaasürengiin Oyuun * Julian Pearce *

* Fred Vine FRS * Lawrence Wager FRS *

Gino Watkins Henry George "Gino" Watkins FRGS (29 January 1907 – c. 20 August 1932) was a British Arctic explorer and nephew of Bolton Eyres-Monsell, 1st Viscount Monsell. Biography Born in London, he was educated at Lancing College and acquired a lov ...

* Kathryn Whaler OBE * Leonard Wills * Sir James Wordie CBE

Former staff

* Edward Bullard FRS * Oliver Bulman * Alex Deer FRS * O T Jones FRS * Drummond Matthews FRS * W H Miller FRS * Stephen Nockolds *

Noel Odell Noel Ewart Odell FRSE FGS (25 December 1890 – 21 February 1987) was an English geologist and mountaineer. In 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit ...

* Sir Keith O'Nions FRS * Lord Oxburgh FRS * Colin Pillinger FRS CBE * Barrie Rickards (Extensive studies on

graptolites Graptolites are a group of colonial animals, members of the subclass Graptolithina within the class Pterobranchia. These filter-feeding organisms are known chiefly from fossils found from the Middle Cambrian ( Miaolingian, Wuliuan) through th ...

) * Nick Shackleton FRS (Winner of the

Wollaston Medal The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), t ...

) * R. S. J. Sparks FRS CBE * C E Tilley FRS * Harry Whittington FRS

References

External links

University of Cambridge Dept. of Earth Sciences

Sedgwick Museum

Sedgwick Club
{{Authority control Earth Sciences, Department of