University honours veteran geologist

By PHOEBE GWANGILO

HUGH Davies, 83, who has been with the University of PNG for 28 years, became an Emeritus professor of the university during its graduation ceremony on Friday.
Chancellor Dr Nicholas Mann said it was the first time the award in the School of Natural and Physical Sciences had been conferred on someone.
“I confer this award Emeritus professor of Applied Geology for his contribution in geology to Papua New Guinea and the university,” Mann said.
He graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1956 and arrived in Papua New Guinea the following year and “continued here for most of his life, first as a mapping geologist”.
“His contribution to the PNG geological mapping programme included the production of 11 of the 22 large-scale maps that depict the geology of Papua New Guinea,” Mann said.
In 2012, he gave an account of the great ophiolite (a section of the Earth’s oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks) extending from Salamaua to Milne Bay which earned him a doctorate at Stanford University, California.
He was the Chief Government Geologist from 1973 to 1977 and during that time contributed to the negotiations that led to the development of the Ok Tedi mine.
Wife Connie Lou had been a teacher for 28 years at the Port Moresby International School.
Both will return to Australia soon.