Geologist Moves To Hooper Chair

Francis Birch, professor of Geology and an expert on the properties of rocks deep in the earth, will become Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology this fall.

He replaces Professor Louis C. Graton, who will retire at the end of the term. Both scientists have worked together for several years, and spent last summer taking the temperature of geysers in Yellowstone National Park.

Professor Birch's laboratory has become a center of research on the nature of the materials of the earth. He has delved into underground conditions of high temperature, chemical solutions, and earthquake wave motion.