William James Kennedy

William James "Jim" Kennedy (* 1943 ) is a British geologist and paleontologist.

Kennedy studied (Bachelor 1964) and received his doctorate in 1968 at King's College London , he went to Oxford University , where he was from 1976 curator of the geoscientific collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History . From 1968 he was a lecturer at Oxford and from 1996 professor for geosciences and from 2003 for natural history. From 2003 he was director of the museum. He was also acting president of Wolfson College for a while, becoming its Fellow in 1970. He was also a fellow of Kellogg College.

He is considered a leading authority on Cretaceous ammonites and stratigraphy and correlation of marine deposits from the Cretaceous. He published on the taxonomy and paleobiology of ammonites, biomineralization of molluscs and stratigraphy of chalk, and sedimentation and diagenesis of chalk sediments. The regional focus of his research was Great Britain (including oil fields in the chalk formations of the North Sea), but also material from North and South Africa, the USA, France, Pakistan, Morocco. He was involved in international collaborations on chalk stratigraphy (ammonites, microfossils, oxygen and carbon isotopes, trace elements, construction of a strontium isotope curve for the upper chalk).

Kennedy was the first to receive the Palaeontographical Society in 2014 and the Prestwich Medal in 1990 for his work on oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. He also received the Neville George Medal of the Geological Society of Glasgow in 1992 and the Linnean Society of London's Gold Medal for Zoology in 2002 for work on the geology and paleontology of chalk for work in taxonomy. He is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Geological Society of London . He received a D.Sc. Oxford University.

He wrote over 400 scientific papers.

Fonts

with CW Wright: The Ammonoidea of the Plenus Marls and the Middle Chalk, Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society London 560, 1981
with CW Wright: The Ammonoidea of the Lower Chalk, Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society London, Part 1 1984, Part 3 1990, Part 4, 1995, Part 5 1996, Part 6, 2015

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personal data
SURNAME	Kennedy, William James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kennedy, William Jim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British paleontologist and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH	1943