Thomas Oldham

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Thomas Oldham

Thomas Oldham (born May 4, 1816 in Dublin , † July 17, 1878 in Rugby , Warwickshire ) was an Irish geologist . He was the first director of the Geological Survey of India (GSI).

Life

Oldham attended a private school in Dublin, studied from 1831 at Trinity College Dublin (Bachelor's degree in 1836) and civil engineering at the University of Edinburgh , where he also studied geology with Robert Jameson . He worked for a while as a civil engineer in Edinburgh. From 1838 he was in the geological survey of Ireland as an assistant to Joseph Ellison Portlock (1794-1864) and mapped in the area of Londonderry and Tyrone. After the dissolution of Portlocks Survey in 1843 he was curator of the Geological Society of Dublin and from 1845 as the successor to John Phillips Professor of Geology at Trinity College Dublin (before that he was assistant professor of civil engineering there from November 1844). In 1846 he also became head of the Ireland section of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1850 he married Louisa Matilda Dixon, with whom he had five sons and a daughter, and he was appointed director of the newly formed Geological Survey of India on the recommendation of Henry De la Beche that same year . In 1851 he arrived in Calcutta. The survey belonging to the East India Company was initially supposed to look for coal, but Oldham convinced his superiors that a geological survey of the land would first have to be carried out and, as part of a reorganization in 1856, he ensured sufficient equipment with a library and his own collection (museum) of rocks and minerals and fossils. Oldham brought in other geologists from Ireland and other parts of Europe (such as Henry Benedict Medlicott , Ferdinand Stoliczka ) and his eldest son Richard Dixon Oldham also worked for the GSI. He also took care of the employment and training of Indian employees and founded the journal Palaeontographica Indica at GSI. In 1876 he returned to England for health reasons and lived in rugby.

The trace fossils Oldhamia ( Ediacarium , Cambrian) were named after him by Edward Forbes in 1848 . He discovered them at Bray's in 1840 and for a time they were considered the oldest known fossils. The mineral oldhamite is also named after him.

Around 120 scientific publications come from him. In 1866 he was instrumental in founding the Indian Museum .

In 1848 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society , whose Royal Medal he received in 1875. In 1843 he became a Fellow of the Geological Society of London and in 1842 a member of the Royal Irish Academy . In 1857 he became a member of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and was its president four times. In 1857 he became a member of the Leopoldina .

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Oldham  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Thomas B. Oldham
personal data
SURNAME Oldham, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish geologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1816
PLACE OF BIRTH Dublin
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1878
Place of death Rugby , Warwickshire