Digby McLaren
Digby Johns McLaren (born December 11, 1919 in Carrickfergus , † December 8, 2004 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian geologist and paleontologist.
McLaren was the son of James McLaren, who was the Duke of Northumberland's land agent and an avid amateur geologist. He attended Sedhberg School in England and studied geology at Queens' College of Cambridge University , interrupted by six years of military service in World War II in 1939 in the Royal Artillery in the Middle East and Europe. In 1948 he received his master's degree in geology from Cambridge and went to Canada, where he became a member of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC). In 1951 he received his PhD from the University of Michigan .
He specialized in paleontology and stratigraphy and in 1955 took part in Operation Franklin, the geological exploration of the Arctic islands. From 1959 to 1967 he headed the paleontological department of the GSC and in 1967 he became the first director of its newly established Institute for Sedimentary and Petroleum Geology in Calgary and in this role led the oil and gas exploration in western Canada. In 1973 he became director of the GSC.
In 1981 he became Canadian Assistant Deputy Minister for Science and Technology for Energy, Mining and Resources (EMR).
In addition, since 1981 he was visiting professor at the University of Ottawa , where he mainly dealt with meteorite research . He was one of the early proponents of mass extinction caused by meteorite impacts, for example at the turn of the Cretaceous / Tertiary.
In 1986 he was one of the initiators of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program for the Threat of Global Warming. He feared a disastrous effect similar to that of meteorite impacts in the past. In addition, he dealt with the problem of resource distribution (minerals, energy, water, land) with the increasing world population, for which he also organized a Dahlem conference.
He has published over 100 scientific papers in paleontology, biostratigraphy and regional geology. In stratigraphy, he contributed to the development of the GSSP's Golden Spike concept , especially for the Silurian / Devonian border. From 1968 to 1972 he headed the Silurian / Devon Boundary Working Group of the Stratigraphy Commission International Union of Geological Sciences.
In 1982 he received the Leopold von Buch badge . He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1979), the National Academy of Sciences (1979) and the Royal Society of Canada (1968), of which he was President from 1987 to 1990. In 1987 he received the Logan Medal of the Geological Association of Canada and in the same year he became an officer of the Order of Canada . He was President of the Geological Society of America in 1981/82 . He was an honorary member of the Geological Society of London and the European Union of Geoscientists (1983) and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science , the American Philosophical Society and the European Academy of Sciences . McLaren held honorary degrees from the University of Ottawa , Carleton University, and the University of Waterloo .
In 1969 he was president of the Paleontological Society and in 1971 of the Alberta Society for Petroleum Geologists, later the Canadian Society for Petroleum Geologists (of which he became an honorary member in 1986).
He had been married to Phyllis Matkin since 1942 and had three children.
In 2004 the Digby McLaren Medal was donated to the International Commission of Stratigraphy.
Fonts
- as editor with Brian Skinner: Resources and World Development. Report of the Dahlem Workshop on Resources and World Development, Berlin, Jan. 12-17, 1986, Apr. 27 - May 2, 1986 (= Dahlem Konferenz. Physical, Chemical, and Earth Sciences Research Report. PC. 6, ISSN 0340 -8116 ). Wiley, Chichester et al. 1987.
- as editor with Constance Mungall: Planet under Stress. The Challenge of Global Change. Oxford University Press, Toronto et al. 1990, ISBN 0-19-540731-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Member History: Digby J. McLaren. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 29, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McLaren, Digby |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | McLaren, Digby Johns |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 11, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Carrickfergus |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 8, 2004 |
| Place of death | Ottawa |