PRESENTATION OF AWARDS FOR 1979 5',19 'Wones, spars. Such was the fame of Taylor's laboratory President the Roebling Medal is specif- that a student from Waupaca, Wisconsin, Bill ically awarded for creative research,and W. H. Bailey, was attracted to Cambridge. He became Taylor is an outstanding selection.But let me known as the razor king for his skill at cutting place on record the thanks of so many crystal- tiny cubes with a razor blade. There were no lographers for the additional inspiration of Tay- computers then for calculating absorption correc- lor's creative administration and elegant style. tions. Bailey and Taylor proved that the Al and His career is a testimony to the fundamental Si atoms are ordered in microcline. Bob Fergu- contribution of crystallography to the advancesin son, Bob Traill, and Paul Ribbe collaborated mineralogy and petrology, and indeed also to ge- with Taylor in solving details of the albite struc- ochemistryand geophysics. tures, and Helen Megaw and co-workers built on Mr. President, I am deeply honored to present Taylor's earlier work on the plagioclasefeldspars. to you such a distinguished pioneer in crystallog- Read all about it in the elegant chapter on feld- raphy for the award of the 1979 Roebling sparsin The Crystal Structureof Minerals. Medal.

American Mineralogist, Volume 65, pages 579-581, 1980

Acceptance of the Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of Americalor 1979

W.H. Tnyron Emeritus Reqder in Crystallography Cav endish Lab orat ory, U niv ersity of Cambridge Cambridge CB3 0HE, England

Mr. President,members of the MineralogicalSociety of America,ladies and gentlemen: May I first expressmy sincerethanks to the So- ciety for the award of the Roebling Medal, which I acceptwith great pleasure:I am awarethat no higher honour for work in this field could be offered. My many friends here would probably agree that I am not often reduced to a state of stunned silence,but when ProfessorGibbs telephonedme in Cambridge about a year ago to tell me that I had beennamed as the recipient of the 1979Medal, I fear that I became quite incoherentwith mingled surpriseand delight. ProfessorSmith has obviously worked hard on my behalf, and I am grateful that he so willingly agreed to act as my citationist. I liked his lighrhearted phraseabout 'knocking off severalstructures in my early years-at the time it did not feel like that at all. In similar vein, his account of my Christmas after- noon festivitiesin 1932might be taken to imply that a couple of hours with a slide rule gave me the feld- spar structure-but, of course,mountains of calcu- lations on the feldsparshad previously got me no- where, until a suddenflash (which seemedbound to be correct-and was!) led straight to the solution. The biographical note printed on your luncheon m03-004x/80,/0506-0579$02.00 PRESENTATION OF AWARDS FOR 1979 program' seems to include information on all my Manchester Laboratory, when-apparently at his ex- various research activities over about 40 years, and press request-I was invited to Vienna to deliver a Professor Smith's citation has directed attention in lecture on silicate structures, in his honour, at the particular to mineralogically important items. I time of his retirement from the Chair of Mineralogy would, however, now like to deal briefly with what I there-a privilege indeed, which I relished. may call more personal aspectsof these mineral stud- No account of the Manchester Laboratory at this ies, first in Manchester and afterwards in Cambridge. time would be complete without at least a reference Even before entering the University of Manchester to one other visiting member-W. H. Zachariasen, as a first-year undergraduate in 1923, I knew from who was reputed to bring in each morning a new my school reading that I wanted to study X-ray crys- structure which he had determined the previous eve- tallography and-if possible-to undertake research ning. This may or may not be literally true-but it in that field: was I not exceptionally lucky in being gives a correct impression of a research team hum- able to do just this throughout my professional ca- ming with activity and enjoying it! reer? Moreover, on beginning research in the Physics An interlude of about l0 years, following my de- Department in 1926 I stepped straight into the ex- parture from Manchester in 1934, and devoted in citing early days of Professor Bragg's attack on min- part to widening my experience in various aspects of eral structures in general and silicates in particular, structural studies, served as preparation for what was and found this project very much to my liking. The to become my major life work, in Cambridge. For in team included high-powered visiting workers from 1945,the war drawing to its end, a decision had to be all over the world, of whom several appear in your taken whether to remain in Manchester as Head of Roebling awards list following Bragg's medal in the Physics Department in the College of Tech- 1948. Their stimulating influence on this young re- nology, or to accept Bragg's invitation to rejoin him searcher was invaluable, in supplementing the direct in the Cavendish, with responsibility for research in help given by Bragg himself and by members of the crystallography. In retrospect, of course, there should Physics Departmental staff. have been no hesitation in choosing the brilliant Among the visitors destined for the Roebling prospect offered by the Cambridge appointment, but award I must mention two-your Professor A. N. at the time I was very loth to abandon wartime plans, Winchell and the Austrian Professor Felix Mach- about to be brought into effect, for a Physics Depart- atschki, at that time in Graz, I think. ment (with status enhanced out of all recognition) in Professor Winchell's modest bearing, gentle man- what was to be a new and greatly-enlarged College of ner and quiet methods did not entirely succeed in Technology. [Later called urrrrsr, with a distinct sug- hiding his encyclopaedic knowledge of the physical gestion of the uIr style-not accidental, I thinkll In properties of a vast range of crystalline materials- fact, I made the right decision and lived happily ever extremely impressive even to a relatively raw begin- after. ner like myself. As was to be expected at such a time of transition Nor did Machatschki's gay and lighrhearted pres- the small wartime team of Cavendish crystallogra- ence (except when his work was going badly!) in any phers melted away to take up appointments else- way diminish the intense interest (for me in particu- where-but not before entertaining Mrs. Taylor and 'hail lar) of his inspired speculations about the nature of me to an excellent and farewell' dinner. In the the feldspar structures. For these formed the starting course of this pleasant event, one after another our point for my own work on this mineral family, which hosts and hostessestook us aside and assured us that continued (on and off, more off than on in recent they were not leaving Cambridge on account of our years!) until 1978. arrival there; in fact good wishes were showered on The financial rewards attached to an academic re- us and some very lasting friendships were formed. search career may not often be such as to excite envy: In Bragg's Manchester Laboratory from 1926 on-' but how would you assessthe pleasure which I de- wards my aim had been quite uncomplicated-to get rived, some 35 years after Machatschki's visit to the on with the analysis of silicate structures, usually in collaboration with others, not infrequently as the 'To obtain a copy of this material and a bibliography of Dr. senior worker. tn Cambridge my task, as I saw it Taylor's publications, order Document AM-80-136 from the Busi- ness Office, Mineralogical Society of America, 2000 Florida Ave- from the beginning, would be quite different. In the nue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009. Please remit $1.00 in advance first place the Crystallographic Laboratory's re- for the microfiche. sources must be adequate for the expected rapid PRESENTATION OF AWARDS FOR 1979 581 postwar increase in the numbers of visiting research- sionate interest in the higher education of women. ers of various degrees of seniority, and of research This was a major triumph for my Laboratory, and I students, many of whom would be preparing for the knew it! In due course-but with deplorable slow- Ph.D. degree. Secondly, the Laboratory's effort ness-more seniorstatus was securedon her appoint- should be directed not only to the production of orig- ment as University Lecturer. inal work of the highest quality, but also with an eye My own feldspar studies,though proceeding to the training of experienced workers who would be- slowly in the period 193+45, had not been aban- come leaders of teams on leaving Cambridge to take doned, and were now revived under favourable con- up senior appointments elsewhere. Also, if the re- ditions. Well-qualified recruits joined the feldspar search in the Laboratory was to flourish it must take projectfrom laboratoriesin U.S.A.,Canada, Austra- 'lines' up a considerable variety of to attract the in- lia and elsewhere;some worked with Helen Megaw, terest of potential entrants, whether young research some with me: their publicationsmake a formidable students or more senior visitors-it would no longer list. At this time also the Department of Mineralogy be possible to operate as a one-line research group as and Petrology set up its own feldsparstudies, in full recently in Cambridge in wartime (concerned almost cooperation with the Crystallographic Laboratory, exclusively with metals) or as in my Manchester days and I was very gratified to find myself involved with (with silicates). researchcarried out in that Department by members At this point I may formally acknowledge my in- of their staff who had very recently emergedfrom debtedness to Helen Megaw, William Cochran, and Ph.D. coursesin my Laboratory. Peter Hirsch (the three pillars of the crystallographic Of the mineral structureswhich I was able to de- state): I do this with the greatest pleasure and most termine, the feldsparswould be regardedas the most enthusiastically, knowing better than anyone else important, and I have already boastedthat my stud- how much their efforts contributed over the years to ies of this family continued until 1978.This in fact the studies for which I have just received the out- came about in the course of a collaboration over standing honour of the Roebling Medal. about 12 years between the small remnant of my Professor Smith stressed in his citation the impor- shrunken CrystallographicLaboratory and Professor tance for mineralogists of Helen Megaw's appoint- Sergio Quareni's group in Padova.This was a most ment. Having known her in Bernal's Laboratory in enjoyablejoint effort which kept me in touch with 1934-35, and being also acquainted with her re- feldsparproblems for 6 or 7 yearsafter my official re- searches during wartime, I was extremely anxious to tirement, but was terminated so very sadly by Quar- secure her for my Cambridge Laboratory in 1945, eni's untimely death. but could offer her only a very junior appointment. It I think, therefore, that I may with justice claim seemed unlikely that this would tempt her to leave minerals as my first love and my last love in fifty Bernal's Birkbeck Laboratory, but discreet enquiry happy years of crystal structure analysis, now so having revealed that a Fellowship in Girton College splendidly rewardedby my new distinction as Roeb- might be added to my Laboratory appointment, she ling Medallist. Mr. President,this is a very happy day accepted the opportunity to pursue her crystallogra- for me. phic studies and at the same time indulge her pas-

American Mineralogist, Volume 65, pages 581-582, 1980

Presentation of the Mineralogical Society of America Award for 1979 to David Ho-kwang Mao

Wlrrnna A. Bessnrr Department of Geological Sciences, Cornell University Ithacu. New York 14853

David Ho-kwang Mao was born on June 18, l94l in Taiwan. His father was a general in Chiang Kai- in Shanghai, China. When he was only seven years shek's army. Dave entered the National University of old, his family fled from the mainland and resettled Taiwan in 1959 and received his Bachelor of Science 0003-0o4x,/80/0506-058I $02.00