Dr A.D. (Dave) Wadsley

This mineral was named in honour of Dr David Wadsley for his outstanding crystallographic investigations of minerals and inorganic compounds.

Dave Wadsley completed a M.Sc. (University of Tasmania) in 1942 and joined CSIRO Industrial Chemistry in Melbourne in 1943.

His major area of research was the structures of non-stoichiometic compounds.  He observed, described and discussed the phenomenon of crystallographic shear along planar faults to account for inhomogeneities in oxide systems. He was the first to apply electron microscopy to characterise non-stoichiometric systems. His pioneering work on the crystal chemistry of non-stoichiometric compounds is recognised in the naming of certain defect structures as Wadsley defects. His other research interests included the structural behaviour of silicates under pressure relevant to phase changes in the earth’s mantle.

Dave became Assistant Chief of Mineral Chemistry in 1967, but while chairing the opening session of an International Symposium on Phase Transformations and the Earth’s Interior in Canberra in 1969 he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Dave received the H.G. Smith Medal of the RACI in 1957 and 1965, and delivered the Liversidge Research Lecture of the Royal Society of NSW in 1958.  He was awarded a D.Sc. from the University of Tasmania in 1956.