Kenneth Midworth Creer

Professor of magnetism, 1966-1972

• born 1925, Douglas, Isle of Man

Ken Creer was born at Douglas, Isle of Man, and received his secondary education at Douglas High School. On leaving high school in 1944 he went into military service, being commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in The King's Regiment in June 1945. He served in the Royal West Africa Frontier Force (1945-46) and in the High Commission Territories Corps in Egypt (1946-47).

After demobilisation, Creer resumed his education at Queens' College Cambridge (1948-51) where he was Shell Scholar (1949) and held the Munro Studentship (1950). His postgraduate work was done in the Department of Geodesy and Geophysics (1951-54). He was awarded BA (1951), MA (1953), Ph.D (1955), ScD (1966).

Upon leaving University Creer served as Senior Geologist at H.M. Geological Survey, in the geophysics group, between 1954 and 1956. From the Survey, Creer was appointed to a Lectureship at the University of Newcastle in 1956, and was rapidly promoted to Reader in Geophysics (1963). He then became Professor of Magnetism in 1966; a post which he held until he was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Geophysics, University of Edinburgh in 1973, which post he held until his retirement in 1993. Since then, he has been an Emeritus Professor at Edinburgh.

Creer has been the recipient of many awards during his career, amongst the honours which he has achieved are:

• Vetlesen Professor at Columbia University, 1971-72
• Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1986-87
• Prix mondial Nessim Habif for Science, University of Geneva, 1987
• John Adam Fleming medal of the American Geophysical Union, 1990
• President of the European Geophysical Society, 1992-94
• Alice and Albert Weeks, Distinguished Visiting Professor, University of Wisconsin, 1994-95
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1996
• Member of Academia Europaea
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• Fellow of American Geophysical Union