The Society
The Greenough Society acts as the backbone for socialising for members of the UCL Earth Science department, organising a number of events throughout the academic year including coffee club, parties, dinners, lectures and geological field trips (for a complete list of events: see calendar). The society was named after geologist and UCL founder George Greenough.
George Greenough
He was educated at Eton, and afterwards (1795) entered Pembroke College, Oxford, but never graduated. In 1798 he proceeded to Göttingen to prosecute legal studies, but having attended the lectures of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach he was attracted to the study of natural history, and, coming into the possession of a fortune, he abandoned law and devoted his attention to science.
Elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1807, he was the chief founder with others of the Geological Society of London in 1807. He was the first chairman of that Society, and in 1811, when it was more regularly constituted, he was the first president: and in this capacity he served on two subsequent occasions, and did much to promote the advancement of geology.
In 1819 he published A Critical Examination of the First Principles of Geology, a work which was useful mainly in refuting erroneous theories. In the same year was published his famous Geological Map of England and Wales, in six sheets; of which a second edition was issued in 1839. This map was to a large extent based on the original map of William Smith; but much new information was embodied. In 1843 he commenced to prepare a geological map of India, which was published in 1854. He died at Naples on the 2nd of April 1855.
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Presidents
Phoebe Smith - 2008-2009
Alistair Walker - 2007-2008
Sebastian Perceau-Wells - 2005-2006
James Scotchman - 2004-2005
Thom Allen - 2003-2004
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