Norman Snelling
Alumni of ANU College of Science
Then: PhD 1958
Now: Profesor Catedratico, Complutense University of Madrid (now retired)
Professor Norman Snelling held an ANU Graduate Research Scholarship in what was then the ANU Geophysics Department from 1954 to 1957 and graduated with a PhD in 1958.
After leaving Canberra in 1957 Professor Snelling travelled to Canada where he held a National Research Council of Canada Post Doctorate with the Canadian Geological Survey. He returned to the UK in September 1959 and took a post with the Colonial Office which soon became the Department of Technical Cooperation, later the Ministry of Overseas Development (MOD). Professor Snelling was promptly seconded to the Department of Geology and Mineralogy at Oxford to join the Department's Geological Age and Isotope Research Group where he remained until 1969. He joined the British Geological Survey (BGS) as Head of Mineral Sciences and Isotope Geology. Professor Snelling left the BGS in 1987 to become a visiting Professor and soon after, Professor Catedratico (Full Professor) in the Faculty of Geological Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid from which he retired in 1995. He was also Editor (geological), Oxfordshire Geology Trust, Faringdon, United Kingdom
Although work with the MOD involved field work in every continent (except Antarctica) Professor Snelling has never been able to make a return visit to Australia. He hopes that one day this will be possible and if so, will certainly visit Canberra and the ANU!
"I did a variety of things as a professional and academic geologist, but am particularly proud of 'Cahen L & Snelling N.J. (with others) The Geochronology and Evolution of Africa, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1984'. I spent 9 years at Oxford (1960-1969) on secondment by the British Ministry of Overseas Development , was then with the British Geological Survey as Head of Mineral Sciences and Isotope Geology until 1987, and from 1987 to 1995 (retirement) I was Foreign Professor with the status of Profesor Catedratico at the Complutense University of Madrid"