| Description | Oral history interview: Stephen Moorbath interviewed by Nina Morgan about his life and geological career, carried out as part of a History of Geology Group (HOGG) project originating around the time of the bicentenary of the Society.
Recording location: Linacre College, Oxford
Duration: 00:55:36
Family background and childhood in Germany and Oxford, becoming interested in geology, switching to geology from chemistry at Oxford University (1951-1954), and working at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment (Harwell) (00:20-05:59); returning to Oxford University to work from 1956 onwards, setting up a new laboratory with a mass spectrometer (Geological Age and Isotope Research Group - 'the age lab'), studying for a DPhil (1959), postdoctoral fellowship at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), retirement research on the early history of the earth and rock collecting (06:00-10:11); participating in research into the age of rocks (geochronology) at Oxford, e.g. from Lewis and Greenland, from 1958 up to the present day, discussion on geochronological research in general, and the current state of the University's Earth Sciences department (10:11-26:17); involvement with the Geological Society, and meeting Viscount Cherwell in order to gain funding for the mass spectrometer at Oxford (26:18-32:17); involvement with improving the methods of measuring the age of rocks, the development of more precise mass spectrometers, the search for the oldest rocks in the world and whether they could provide evidence for the earliest life on earth, and other applications for the equipment used in geochronology (32:18-45:55); modern geological education, particularly at Oxford (45:56-49:13); interviewee's current activities, scientific and otherwise (49:14-55:36).
[Recording ends abruptly. Possibly cut off?] |