Darashaw Nosherwan Wadia, 1883-1969

Abstract

Darashaw Nosherwan Wadia enjoyed the honour of being the first geologist to be made a National Professor by the Government of India. He had been successively: Professor of Geology at Jammu in Kashmir, Officiating Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, Government Mineralogist of Ceylon, Mineral Adviser to the Government of India, Director of the Indian Bureau of Mines, and, from 1949 until his death on 15 June 1969 at New Delhi, Geological Adviser to the Indian Atomic Energy Commission. During the concerted attack by the Geological Survey of India in the 1920s and 1930s on the unravelling (by geological mapping) of the geotectonics of the Himalayas, Wadia’s interpretation of the detailed stratigraphy and geological structure of the western part of that formidable mountain range was of outstanding value. He also made substantial contributions to the economic assessment of the geology of Ceylon and to the understanding of that country’s geomorphology.