Professor Stephen Moorbath, FRS – RIP

We are sorry to announce the sad news that Professor Stephen Moorbath died on Sunday 16th October in Sobell House. His funeral will take place on Monday 31st October.

Stephen will be much missed in the department. He set up the Age and Isotope Geochemistry lab in 1956, subsequently dating samples from West Greenland which at 3,800 million years, proved to be the oldest yet known. He was a key influence on the academic careers of alumni and faculty members past and present – including Keith O’Nions, Alex Halliday, Gideon Henderson, Don Porcelli and Chris Ballentine – and was an active member of the department until he became too ill in the last 18 months.

Interviews with Stephen, collected by the British Library as part of their ‘Voices of Science’ series, are available to listen to online.

Our sympathies are with his widow, Pauline, their two children, and their families. Condolences may be passed on via the External Relations Officer, Claire Grainger, see address below.

Department of Earth Sciences
South Parks Road
Oxford
OX1 3AN

or email: alumni@earth.ox.ac.uk