| 1 | Name: | Lord Oxburgh | |
| Institution: | House of Lords; Shell Transport & Trading Company | ||
| Year Elected: | 2005 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1934 | ||
Lord Oxburgh played a key role in providing a dynamic basis for plate tectonics, mainly in collaboration with D. L. Turcotte, who he allegedly persuaded to abandon engineering for geophysics. Lord Oxburgh went on to become a university administrator and wrote a notorious report on U.K. earth science which advocated the concentration of resources into a small number of well-founded geology departments. Since being ennobled he has played a prominent role in U.K. government science policy (as chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defense from 1988-93), and as chairman of Shell Oil he has voiced widely publicized concern over global warming. Formerly a lecturer in geology (1962-78) and professor of mineralogy and petrology (1978-89) at the University of Cambridge, Lord Oxburgh has chaired the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology since 2001. He was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1978 and of the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. | |||