The Lord Oxburgh | |
---|---|
Born | 2 November 1934 |
Alma mater |
University College, Oxford Princeton University |
Thesis | Geology of the eastern Carabobo area, Venezuela (1960) |
Doctoral advisor | Harry Hammond Hess |
Ernest Ronald Oxburgh, Baron Oxburgh, KBE, FRS, HonFREng (born 2 November 1934) is a geologist and geophysicist. Lord Oxburgh is well known for his work as a public advocate in both academia and the business world in addressing the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and develop alternative energy sources as well as his negative views on the consequences of current oil consumption.
Oxburgh was born in Liverpool on 2 November 1934. He remained there with his family throughout World War II, despite Luftwaffe air raids. He attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1942 to 1950. He is a graduate of the University College, Oxford and Princeton University (PhD) (1960) where he worked on the emerging theory of plate tectonics with the famous geologist Harry Hammond Hess.
Oxburgh has taught geology and geophysics at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. At Cambridge he was head of the Department of Earth Sciences and President of Queens' College. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford, Caltech, and Cornell. From 1988 to 1993, Lord Oxburgh was chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, and Rector of Imperial College London from 1993–2000. He was a member of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education that published an influential report in 1997.