William Drumm Johnston
William Drumm Johnston ( 1899 - November 5, 1972 ) was an American geologist.
Johnston was the son of a master mechanic on the railroad and grew up in Chicago and Dayton . He collected fossils as a teenager and was tutored in them by his teacher at August Frederick Foerste High School .
He graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in chemistry and geology in 1921, then taught geology at universities in Cincinnati, Kentucky and the New Mexico School of Mines, and received his doctorate in geology from George Washington University in 1933 . From 1928 he was with the US Geological Survey . There he remained with the Board of Economic Warfare from 1942 to 1945. During World War II, the search for certain minerals and ores were priorities and Johnston organized the search for chromite and other raw materials (like piezo crystals) in Brazil. During this time he made good contacts with Brazilian geologists. In 1945 he became head of the foreign department of the US Geological Survey, which he remained until 1964. In 1969 he retired.
Initially he worked on the US Geological Survey on the hydrogeology of northern Alabama, then on gold deposits in California (Grass Valley) and Georgia. After the war, as head of the international department of the Geological Survey, he expanded contacts to South America, for example through training South American geologists in the USA and a program to search for iron ore in Brazil. He also set up a geological service in the Philippines, and later Thailand and Indonesia followed.
In 1963 he received the Leopold von Buch badge . In 1952 he received the highest Brazilian order Cruzeiro do Sul and in 1959 he received the Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva gold medal of the Brazilian geological service. In 1970 he became an honorary professor in Rio de Janeiro. He received the US Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award.
He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1961) and the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. 1939 to 1941 he was secretary and 1957 vice president of the Society of Economic Geologists and 1957 president of the Geological Society of Washington.
He had been married since 1931 and had four children.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Johnston, William Drumm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1899 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th November 1972 |