Abstract
PROF. L. J. WILLS retires from the chair of geology in the University of Birmingham at the end of this session. Prof. Wills, like his predecessors, has shown that he is no narrow sgeoialist, and one has only to look at a list his throughout been a stratigrapher in the widest sense, and when carrying out detailed palaeontological work has always had in view the fact that the plants or animals he is describing were once living organisms making up part of the environment in which they lived. His early work on the flora and faunas of the Bromsgrove Trias gave a picture of a desert oasis with its inhabitants of scorpions living among the cycads ; later his work on the Geological Survey took him on to the North Welsh Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the Llangollen syncline, an area excellent for the teaching of young students, and many generations of Birmingham undergraduates have benefited from visits under his guidance to this district. Another line of research which Prof. Wills has followed deals with the history of the Dee and Severn Rivers, and in this he has elucidated the history of these rivers and their relationship to the glacial episodes of the West Midlands and North Wales. Perhaps his most striking pieces of work, however, are his two books, “The Physiographic Evolution of Britain’ and the ”Palseogeography of the Midlands". These epitomize his teaching of stratigraphy and have influenced teaching not only in Birmingham but also in all the universities throughout Great Britain. His many friends and former students will wish him many years of happy and fruitful retirement, for, like so many geologists, he shows no sign of growing old.
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Geology at Birmingham: Prof. L. J. Wills. Nature 164, 96 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164096a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164096a0