Calendar: 1969-1970 Page 434

lxxii Annual Report of the Delegacy Departmental Notes In January 1968 the Department suffered grievous loss in the untimely death of Professor Taylor while conducting underwater studies in the Seychelles Islands During his nineteen years as its Head the Department has grown greatly in size and strength and Professor Taylor will be missed not only for his high academic distinction but also for his wise counsel and personal friendship At the time of his death he was Chairman of the British National Committee for Geology and member of the Natural Environment Research Council Despite the additional strains created by the changeover to the new degree system undergraduate teaching has progressed satis- factorily and some new courses have been established The growth and quality of the joint degree school is particularly welcome feature Research activities continue to be diverse but lying mainly within the fields of geochemistry sedimentology palacoecology and paly- nology The department has added substantially to its oceanographic equipment during the year The X-ray diffraction and fluorescence apparatus is very fully used both by members of the department and by other departments of the University while staff and students have used facilities at Imperial College and Birkbeck College grants for research were awarded to Mr Potter for work in the Northern Range of Trinidad to Dr Jones for work in Cantabria and to Dr Prentice who has acted as Head of the department during the session for his Thames Research project The department continues to be well represented on public bodies new appointments are listed on xxvi ff Dr Prentice is member of the Thames Estuary Study group of the Port of London Authority of the Raw Materials Committee of the British Ceramic Research Associa- tion and of the Upper Palaeozoic Era Sub-committee of the Geological Society Dr Hancock has served on the Mesozoic Era Sub- committee of the Geological Society Members of the department attended and presented papers at conferences at Calgary Alberta Leicester Sheffield and Liverpool The Lyell Club had most successful year culminating in highly successful symposium on the Siluro-Devonian Boundary group of eminent specialists provided most stimulating programme which attracted an audience of over 200 from London and universities as far away as Bristol and Sheffield This symposium was suggested by the