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On the Trail of Professor Nick Rast,
Continued......
At Liverpool in 1965, Reader in Geology Rast seems remarkably at ease in spite of being hemmed in so tightly by so much feminine pulchritude, a group known at the time as the “Liverpool Lovlies.”
The bevy of brainy “Liverpool Lovlies” are joined here by a handsome group of male geologists, who, had they not come under Nick’s influence might have been recruited for careers with the Beatles.
During these years Nick was becoming recognized as a rising star in the constellation of stars that comprised The Geological Society. In those years he authored some 30 research papers mainly concerned with structural geology, metamorphism and tectonics involving a great variety of volcanic rocks and the character of volcanicity of Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks. These involved rocks of Wales, central Ireland, and classic complexes such as the Dalradian and the Moine of the Highlands of Scotland. He also explored Caledonian orogenic episodes in the British Isles and France. One of his co-authors in the early 1960’s was Tony Harris, now Dean of Science at Liverpool University, and former President of The Geological Society of London. Another of Nick’s students from the mid-1960’s was Brian Sturt, who died suddenly last Fall in Trondheim, Norway. Both of these geologists have achieved distinction internationally.
In 1996 Brian Sturt, Nick and I gathered with a number of other geologists in Newfoundland to celebrate the distinguished career of Hank Williams at the Conference and Field Trips. Dr. Brian Sturt was Director of Regional Geologial Mapping Studies in the Norwegian Geological Survey.
Nick’s brilliant and wide-ranging geological studies led to his being awarded the Lyell Fund of the Geological Society of London and a Medal from the University of Liverpool. A volume that first brought Nick indelibly to my attention was the 380 page book, Mechanism of Igneous Intrusion edited by Geoffrey Newall and Nicholas Rast, the results of a Symposium of the same name held in Liverpool University in 1969. For these achievements among others, the Royal Society invited Professor Rast to be Visiting Royal Society Professor in the Graduate School of Geology at the University of Mexico (UNAM), a position which he filled from January to September 1970.
In 1967 during an outbreak of Hoof and Mouth disease, it was not possible to the summer field school to be held in Ireland so the University of Wales and the University of Liverpool held their combined field school in Spain.
Members of the combined field schools based in Benidorm-Cartegena, Spain who could be identified (clockwise): Terry Driscoll, Nick Rast, John Dewey and Wally Pitcher.
In May of 1970 Mexico Royal Society Visiting Professor Rast explains the mysteries of micro-structures associated with the fault at Acatlan.
