Archibald Geikie

Sir Archibald Geikie was a Scottish geologist born December 28, 1835, in Edinburgh, Scotland, who died November 10, 1924, in Haslemere, England, and who published pioneering work on the effects of glacial drift in Scotland in 1863, conducted extensive research on the volcanic geology of Britain Tertiary period, produced geological maps of Scotland jointly with Roderick Murchison in 1862 and independently in 1892, and helped develop microscopic petrography as a geological discipline. He served as the first Murchison Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1871 to 1881, directed the Scottish branch of the Geological Survey from 1867 to 1881, and served as Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom from 1881 to 1901, publishing The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain and The Founders of Geology, both in 1897. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1865, won the Murchison Medal in 1881, the Wollaston Medal in 1895, and the Royal Medal in 1896, was knighted in 1891, was appointed to the Order of Merit in 1914, and served as president of both the Geological Society of London and the Royal Society.