| Description | File containing general correspondence of Dan McKenzie, Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, England, 1999. The contents principally comprise various invitations or arrangements for McKenzie to attend symposia or social events, requests for preprints, or permission to republish his papers/figures, letters from publishers, or fellow academics/scientists and members of the public seeking McKenzie's opinion on their works. Also:
Brian Heap, Master, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge, England, enclosing a copy of a revised version of an open letter from a group of Fellows of the Royal Society reacting to the 'Pusztai Affair', calling for proper peer review processes before scientific claims can be considered valid, 20 February 1999, the letter is annotated by McKenzie "I agree completely", 22 February 1999;
Walter Rüegg, Vice President of the Balzan General Prize Committee, Milan, Italy, seeking comments on the future plans of the Board of the Balzan Prize, 2 March 1999, with copy reply from McKenzie stating that he is not keen on large symposia, preferring either small technical meetings or engaging in good science television programmes, thinks scientists would benefit from being given large prizes at an early stage in their career as most are given to established figures who are by then too old to do much with the money, [n.d.];
B P Radhakrishna, President of the Geological Society of India, Bangalore, India, informing McKenzie of his Honorary Fellowship of the Geological Society of India, 27 May 1999, with brief copy reply from McKenzie, delighted to accept, 14 June 1999; Johnny Johannessen, GOCE Mission Advisory Group, European Space Agency-ESTEC, Netherlands, sending update on the status of the ESA Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) project, 30 April 1999, with copy reply from McKenzie commenting that whilst the oceanographic arguments seem convincing he believes those relating to its projected use to survey Solid Earth are incorrect, 14 June 1999;
David Gale, Natural Environment Research Council NERC), Swindon, England, Sir John Krebs of NERC would like to nominate McKenzie for the Benjamin Franklin Medal [of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, USA], 22 June 1999, with copy reply from McKenzie pleased to accept, 1 July 1999; letters concerning the arrangements for the conferring of an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Bristol, and latterly membership of its Convocation, 17 May-30 July 1999;
Mark T Brandon, Associate Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA, the department is undergoing a complete reorganisation and is seeking McKenzie's opinion on how to proceed, 7 September 1999; email correspondence between Francis Nimmo, temporarily based at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, California, USA and McKenzie, comparing the academic culture of Caltech and Cambridge, 20 November 1999. |
| Administrative History | 'Pusztai Affair' concerned the public claims by the scientist Árpád Pusztai that genetically modified potatoes caused physical harm to rats, the research was unpublished and therefore not peer reviewed. A number of scientists, organised by Friends of the Earth, supported his claims. The Royal Society announced that it was peer review his experiments. |