Barry Cooper (geologist)
Australian geologist and historian of science
Barry J. Cooper (1948–2023) was an Australian geologist, professor at the University of South Australia, historian of geology and public figure. President of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (2016-2020).
Biography
Cooper was born on September 23, 1948 in Ivanhoe, Victoria, Australia. He completed his PhD in 1974 at the Ohio State University School of Earth Sciences.
He worked as a professor of geology at the University of South Australia in Adelaide and Whyalla, and conducted research in the field of paleontology, history of geology and popularization of stone heritage. He was a long-standing active member of many Australian and international organizations and meetings in the geological sciences and their history.
Cooper died on October 13, 2023, in Adelaide, South Australia.
Awards
The following medals were awarded from the Geological Society of Australia:
2019: Bruce Webb Medal, for contribution to the study of geology of the state of South Australia
2021: Tom Vallance Medal, for his contribution to the history of geosciences in Australia
Membership
Geological Society of Australia
Geological Society of America
Secretary General (2008–2016) and then President (2016–2020) of the International Commission on the History of Geological Sciences (INHIGEO)
Founder and Secretary General of the Stone Heritage Task Force, International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).
References
Links
Publications - The National Library of Australia
Past-president INHIGEO
Publications on researchgate.net
Tom Vallance Medal, 2021.
“Barry Cooper (geologist)” enters the record as australian geologist and historian of science. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Barry, Cooper and geologist can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q75582748. VIAF identifies the subject as 275630485. The Library of Congress control number is n82030173. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 2023, 2016 and 2020.
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