Biographical entry Compston, William (1931 - )

Summary

William Compston has been a professorial fellow, Australian National University since 1974. He has made outstanding contributions to the application of mass spectrometry to the dating of rocks, particularly in the use of the uranium-lead and rubidium-strontium radioactive decay series. His research group at the Australian National University developed the Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) which revolutionised geochronology. They identified what were then the oldest known rocks, from Western Australia. In 1969 Compston was principal investigator in dating lunar rocks from the Apollo 11 mission.

Details

Events

1951

Education - BSc, University of Western Australia

1956 - 1957

Award - Fulbright Scholarship, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, U.S.A.

1957

Education - PhD, University of Western Australia

1958 - 1961

Career position - Lecturer in Physics, University of Western Australia

1961

Career event - Joined the Department of Geophysics, Australian National University

1971 -

Award - Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA)

1987 -

Award - Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

1988

Award - Mawson Medal, Australian Academy of Science

1988

Education - DSc, University of Western Australia

1995

Award - Morrison Medal, Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry

1995

Award - Clunies Ross Award, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

1998

Award - Matthew Flinders Medal, Australian Academy of Science

2001

Award - Centenary Medal for service to Australian Earth Science and Instrumental Development

Related entries

Published resources

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q8007032. Details
• 'Compston, William (1931-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1473700. Details

Resource Sections

• Salt, David, 'Interview with Professor Bill Compston', in Interviews with Australian scientists, Australian Academy of Science, 2005, http://www.science.org.au/scientists/interviews/c/bc.html. Details

See also

• 'Compston, William (1931 - )', Fellows of the Academy, Australian Academy of Science, 2019, https://www.science.org.au/profile/bill-compston. Details
• Downard, K. M. and De Laeter, J. R., 'A History of Mass Spectrometry in Australia', Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 40 (9) (2005), 1123-1139. Details