Michael John O'Hara
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Michael John O'Hara | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 22 February 1933 |
| Died | 24 November 2014 (aged 81) |
| Occupation(s) | geologist, igneous petrologist |
Michael John O'Hara (22 February 1933 — 24 November 2014) was a British geologist who specialised in igneous petrology.
Born in Sydney, Australia, and raised in the UK, O'Hara began his geology studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he spent the period 1952–58, and was awarded both his undergraduate and PhD degrees.[1]
In 1958, he took up a position at the University of Edinburgh in the Grant Institute of Geology. He was appointed to a personal chair in 1970. During this time, he spent some time at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute, and also served as a NASA principal investigator from 1967 to 1974, working on lunar rock samples from the Apollo missions.
In 1978, he moved from Edinburgh to become head of the geology department at University College of Wales Aberystwyth, where he remained until 1993. This period included academic postings at California Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Sultan Qaboos University, as well as national administerial duties with the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). He was finally appointed Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University in 1993.
