Professor Mike Kendall FRS elected fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Congratulations to our Head of Department and Chair of Geophysics Professor Mike Kendall who has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for his outstanding contributions to science.

Already elected a fellow of the Royal Society here in the UK in 2019, Mike has this year been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in the Academy of Science.

Mike says of the award, ‘As a Canadian, this award means a lot to me. I benefitted greatly from the Canadian education system, which encourages students in all fields and is still one of the best in the world. I am fortunate that I still get to do research in exciting parts of Canada.’

Founded in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) serves Canada by recognising leading intellectuals, researchers and artists, mobilising them in debate and advising the government on issues that are critical to the country. After rigorous evaluation and review of their accomplishments, leading individuals may be elected to one of the Society’s three Academies – the Academy of Arts and Humanities; the Academy of Social Sciences; and the Academy of Science. There are currently over 2,558 Fellows.

RSC President Jeremy McNeil says that ‘The Royal Society of Canada is delighted to welcome this outstanding cohort of artists, scholars and scientists. These individuals are recognised for their exceptional contributions their respective disciplines and are a real credit to Canada”.

Mike did both his undergraduate degree and his PhD at Queen’s University in Canada and was a NSERC postdoctoral fellow and Green’s Scholar at the Scripps Institution of  Oceanography in the USA. He has had faculty positions at the University of Toronto, the University of Leeds and he joined us in Oxford from the University of Bristol in 2019. He was previously president of the British Geophysical Association (BGA) and vice-president (Geophysics) of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 2003 he was the BGA Bullerwell Lecturer, in 2011 he was elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union and in 2019 he was elected to the Royal Society.

Mike’s research covers pure and applied geophysics, with connections to mineral physics, geodynamics, natural resources and engineering. Leading seismic field experiments in geologic settings ranging from the Canadian Arctic to Ethiopia, he has made pioneering contributions to the study of the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s interior, with a focus on seismic anisotropy.

Many Congratulations to Mike on this well deserved honour.

Mike conducting field work on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles.

Field work in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada