Robert Richard Brooks, BA, BSc, PhD, DSc, FRS

Abstract

⇓Fig. 113 February 2001 Fig. 1. On 23 January the world lost another legendary figure in geochemistry. Born in Bristol to an English father and French mother, Robert Brooks spent the first 30 years of his life in England. During that period he served in the British army in the Middle East and East Africa, then attended Bristol University from which he received his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry in 1952. After working for a while as an analytical chemist, he moved to South Africa in 1956 and, under the tutorship of Louis Ahrens, received a PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Cape Town in 1960. That same year he took an academic staff position in New Zealand at Massey University in Palmerston North, where he remained based for the rest of his life. During his 40 years at Massey University, he travelled widely and developed an increasingly broad range of interests and expertise on a wide range of subjects. Among his distinctions, Professor …