Abstract
PROF. H. G. A. HICKLING is to retire at the end of this session from the chair of geology at King‘s College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which he has held since 1920. During this period he has greatly extended his own work in some of the branches of geology to which he had earlier made contributions, and his students have shown that wide range of interest which is characteristic of him. Already as a lecturer at Manchester he had investigated the Old Red Sandstones of east Scotland, described the footprints of fossil reptiles, examined the variations of gastropods, studied the structure of fossil plants, the microstructure of coals and the stratigraphy of the Lancashire coalfield ; the latter topics he made his own at a time when coalfield work was thought by some to be scarcely suitable for academic geologists. At Newcastle he has added much to our knowledge of coals, and especially (by his development of techniques of section cutting) to the understanding of ‘vitrain'. He has fittingly combined an active interest in the economic problems of the north of England with a full appreciation of the necessity for less obviously useful studies : all this has been to the advantage of his students. His work was recognized by the award of the Murchison Medal by the Geological Society in 1934 and by his election to the Royal Society in 1936.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Geology at Newcastle-upon-Tyne : Prof. H. G. A. Hickling, F.R.S. Nature 161, 1003 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/1611003c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1611003c0