Professor Jeff Wilson

Sadly, Jeff passed away on 20th July 2023. Jeff had a career of 40 years as a clay mineralogist and was Head of the Division of Soils and Soil Microbiology at the Macaulay Institute from 1982 until he retired in 1997. He influenced the careers of many scientists and will be very much missed.

Jeff Wilson was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the former Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in 1997 following his retirement as Head of the Division of Soils and Soil Microbiology. His research activities concerned the mineralogy of soils in general, and Scottish soils in particular, in the context of soil properties and behaviour. Since retirement he has conceived, edited and co-written books on "Soil Quality and Sustainable Agriculture in Central and Eastern Europe" and the "Nature, Management and Utilization of the Red Soils of China". Following publication of the latter, Jeff was appointed an Honorary Professor of Zhejiang Agricultural University, China. He has just written a book on "Clay Minerals", a part of the prestigious Deer, Howie and Zussman series on "Rock-Forming Minerals", which will shortly be published by the Geological Society of London. Future plans include writing a book on "Soil Mineralogy".

Jeff was the first recipient of the Schlumberger Medal, which is awarded by the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for excellence in mineralogical research. He has also received the Bailey Award, the highest award given by the Clay Minerals Society of America, and was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Society. Since retirement he has published research papers on varied topics including biological weathering, geophagic soils, and more recently, the role of clay minerals in shale instability and formation damage in reservoir sandstones, topics of major interest to the oil industry.