Bernard Elgey Leake (born 29 July 1932) is an English geologist. He is emeritus professor of geology at the University of Glasgow, was Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow at Cardiff University 2000-2002 and has been an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University since 1997.
Leake was born on 29 July 1932 in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, son of Norman Sidney Leake and Clare Evelyn Walgate. He was educated at the Wirral Grammar School for Boys and the University of Liverpool, where he gained a first class BSc in 1952 and PhD in 1955. He gained DSc degrees from Bristol in 1974 and Glasgow in 1997.
Leake was a Leverhulme research fellow at Liverpool 1955–57. In 1957 he was appointed lecturer in geology at the University of Bristol, becoming reader in 1968. He was a research associate at University of California, Berkeley in 1966.
In 1974 Leake was appointed professor and head of the department of geology at the University of Glasgow and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1978. He was also honorary keeper of geological collections at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow.
He was awarded the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 1977 and was president of the society 1986–88.
In 1997 Leake moved to Cardiff University where he continued to work on the petrogenesis of the Galway Granite, the geology of Joyces Country, the Clifden and Roundstone areas of Connemara and the massif as a whole. He also completed biographies of geologists F.C. Phillips and J.W.Gregory and the 125-year history of the staff in the Cardiff Geology Department 1891–2016.
Selected publications Leake, B. E. Catalogue of Analysed Calciferous Amphiboles (1968). See Publication 129 Leake, B. E., Tanner, P. W. G. The Geology of the Dalradian and associated rocks of Connemara, Western Ireland (1994). See Publication 117 Leake, B. E. (chairman; 1st of 22 authors), Nomenclature of Amphiboles. (1997) See Publication 129
Leake, B. E. The Life and work of Professor J. W. Gregory FRS (1864–1932); Geologist, Writer and Explorer. (2011) See Publication 164
Career summary • Honorary Research Fellow, School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, since 2020 Earth & Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University (1997–) • Leverhulme Emeritus Research Fellow at Cardiff University (2000–2) • Erskine Visiting Research Fellow in Geology, Univ. of Canterbury, New Zealand (1999) • DSc University of Glasgow 1997 • Abstracted 30,000 pages of Journal of Petrology for Mineralogical Abstracts 1995–2008 • Over 40 external BSc class Examinerships plus numerous PhD & MSc Examinerships • Detailed Geological Mapping, chiefly Connemara, Ireland, but also Donegal, Islay, & the Scottish Highlands over 58 years (1952–2008) plus amphibole, mineralogy, petrology & geochemistry studies from all the continents except Antarctica, as shown by publication list • Outside UK & Ireland, short field visits to Eastern Desert Egypt, South & North Appalachians, Grenville Province, Cortlandt Complex New York, North California, Colorado & Bryce Canyons, Arches NP; sites in Turkey, central Sweden & Norway; the Pilbara, Narryer, Leewin-Naturaliste and southern W Australia; Broken Hill NSW, North & South Island, New Zealand • Honorary Treasurer of the Geologists' Association 1997–2008 • Published with Dr PWG Tanner the Dalradian geology of Connemara Memoir; mapping by Leake began in 1952. Project initiated by RM Shackleton in 1936 (Publication 117, 1994) • Visiting Researcher, Otago Univ. New Zealand & Univ. of Western Australia (1994) • Gledden Senior Visiting Research Fellow in Geology, Univ of Western Australia, (1985–6) • Council Geological Society (1979–85; 1986–96; 2002–5) Chairman of Publications Committee (1975–8), vice-president (1980); Honorary Treasurer (1981–5), (1989–96) never reporting a loss; President (1986–8); Chairman Publications Board (1987–96) & with Robin Cocks & Bill French, initiated the establishment of the Geological Society's Publishing House (1987) • Natural Environment Research Council (1978–85); Chairman of Visiting Group to the British Geological Survey (1981–5) and of the Isotope Facilities Programme (1981–5; 1987–91) • Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1976); Council (1988–90) • Management Committee of the Scottish Universities Research & Reactor Centre, East Kilbride (1974–92) • Head of University of Glasgow Geology Department, later renamed Geology & Applied Geology, (1974–92) • Professor of Geology & Honorary Keeper of the Geological Collections in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow (1974–97); Life-time 37 research students supervised. • DSc University of Bristol (1974) • Last sole editor of the Journal of the Geological Society (1972–4) • Associate Editor Mineralogical Magazine (1970–82) • International Mineralogical Association, Committee on Amphibole Nomenclature: Secretary (1968–79); Chairman (1982–2006) • Research Associate University of California, Berkeley (1966) • Leader of a 1965-8 Bristol team of 10 who first devised & calibrated in Britain fully automatic X-ray Fluorescent chemical analyses of rocks for 38 major & trace elements (Publication 29) • Mineralogical Society Council (1965–8; 1978–80; 1996–2000) Vice-president (1979–80; 1996–7) President (1999–2000) Managing Trustee (1997–8; 2000–4) • Assistant Lecturer (1957–9), Lecturer (1959–68), Reader (1968–74) in Geology, University of Bristol • Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Liverpool University (1955–7) • PhD Department of Geology, University of Liverpool with 6 months geochemistry at Imperial College. Geology of the Cashel district (Connemara, Ireland) 1955. • BSc Honours Geology, 1st class, University of Liverpool (1952). • Wirral Grammar School for Boys, Lever House, Bebington, Wirral, Cheshire (1943–49)
Honours and awards
• Lyell Medal 1977 • Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1978) • Sodic amphibole leakeite named in 1992 by International Mineralogical Association • Honorary Member of Mineralogical Society (2004) • Honorary Member of the Liverpool Geological Society (2007) • President of the Geological (1986–8) & Mineralogical Societies (1998–2000) • Honorary Member of the Geologists’ Association & their Foulerton Award (2010)
Professional memberships
Geological Societies of London, Edinburgh, Yorkshire, Liverpool, Norway, Finland, India & America*. Mineralogical Societies of Great Britain & Ireland; America; Canada; Switzerland. American Geophysical Union; All Life Memberships except * item. Geochemical Society (1965–2006); Geological Association of Canada (1978–2008); Glasgow Geological Society (1975–97)
Chronological list of publications
1. 1958 B.E. Leake. The Cashel-Lough Wheelaun intrusion, Co. Galway, Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 59 B 155–203.
2. 1958 B.E. Leake. Composition of pelites from Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland. Geol. Mag. 95 .281-296.
3. 1960 B.E. Leake. Compilation of chemical analyses and physical constants of natural cordierites. Amer. Mineral. 45, 282–298.
4. 1960 B.E. Leake & G. Skirrow. The pelitic hornfelses of the Cashel-Lough Wheelaun intrusion, County Galway, Eire. Journ. Geol. 68, 23–40.
5. 1960 B. W . Evans & B.E. Leake. The composition and origin of the striped amphibolites of Connemara, Ireland. Jour. Petrol. 1, 337-¬363.
6. 1962 B.E. Leake. On the non-existence of a vacant area in the Hallimond calciferous amphibole diagram. Jap. Jour. Geol. Geogr. 33, 1–13.
7. 1963 B.E. Leake. Origin of amphibolites from northwest Adirondacks, New York. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 74, 1193–1202.
8. 1963 B.E. Leake & P.J. Leggo. On the age relations of the Connemara Migmatites and the Galway Granite, West of Ireland. Geol. Mag. 100, 193–204.
9. 1963 B.E. Leake. The location of the Southern Uplands Fault in central Ireland. Geol. Mag. 100, 420–423.
10. 1963 B.E. Leake. A possible fossil in a graphitic marble in the Connemara Schist, Cornamona, Co. Galway, Ireland. Geol. Mag. 100, 44–46.
11. 1964 B.E. Leake. The chemical distinction between ortho- and para-amphibolites. Jour. Petrol. 5, 238–254.
12. 1964 B.E. Leake. New light on the Dawros peridotite, Connemara, Ireland. Geol. Mag. 101, 63–75.
13. 1964 R. Bradshaw & B.E. Leake. A chondrodite-humite-spinel marble from Sørfinnset, nesar Glomfjord, Northern Norway. Mineral. Mag. 31, 1066–1080.
14. 1965 B.E. Leake. The relationship between composition of calciferous amphibole and grade of metamorphism in 'Controls of Metamorphism' 299–318. Ed. W.S. Pitcher & G.W. Flinn, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh, London.
15. 1965 B.E. Leake. The relationship between tetrahedral aluminium and the maximum possible octahedral aluminium in natural calciferous and subcalciferous amphiboles. Amer. Mineral. 50, 843–851.
16. 1965 B.E. Leake. A cordierite-rich magnetite-högbomite¬orthopyroxene hornfels from Currywongaun, Connemara, Ireland. Amer. Mineral. 50, 1092 -1095.
17. 1965 B.E. Leake & F.C. Phillips. Triplite from Rhodesia. Mineral. Mag. 35, 661–662.
18. 1965 H. Winchell & B.E. Leake. Regressions of refractive indices, density and lattice constants on the composition of orthopyroxenes. Amer. Mineral. 50, 294.
19. 1965 B.E. Leake. Report on the Fergus River Cave erratics. Proc. Bristol Spelaeological Society 10, 288–9.
20. 1966 P.J. Leggo, W. Compston & B.E. Leake. Geochronology of the Connemara granities and its bearing on the antiquity of the Dalradian Series. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London. 122, 91–118.
21. 1966 R.J. Howarth, C. Kilburn & B.E. Leake. The Boulder Bed Succession at Glencolumbkille, County Donegal. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 65 B, 117–156.
22. 1968 S. Moorbath, K. Bell, B.E. Leake & W.S. McKerrow. Geochronological Studies in Connemara and Murrisk, Western Ireland. In Radiometric dating for Geologists, 259–298. Edited by E. Hamilton and R. Farquhar. Interscience, London.
23. 1968 B.E. Leake. A catalog of analysed calciferous and subcalciferous amphiboles together with their nomenclature and associated minerals. Geol. Soc. America. Special Paper 98. 210 pages.
24. 1968 B.E. Leake. Optical properties and composition in the orthopyroxene series. Mineral. Mag. 37, 745- 747.
25. 1968 B.E. Leake, Amphibole from the Moine Nappe in Skye. Scot. Jour. Geol. 4, 287–288.
26. 1968 B.E. Leake. Zoned garnets from the Galway Granite and its aplites. Earth and Planet. Sci. Letters. 3, 311–316.
27. 1968 M.J. Cruse & B.E. Leake. The geology of Renvyle, Inishbofin and Inishshark, N.W. Connemara, County Galway. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 67 B, 1-36.
28. 1969 P.J. Leggo, P.W.G. Tanner & B.E. Leake. An isochron study of the Donegal Granite and some Dalradian rocks of Britain. In Amer. Assoc. Pet. Geol. Memoir 12, North Atlantic - Geology and Continental Drift, 354–362.
29. 1969 B.E. Leake, G.L. Hendry, A. Kemp, A.G. Plant, P.K. Harvey, J.R. Wilson, J.S. Coats, J.W. Aucott, T. Liinel & J.R. Howarth. The chemical analysis of rock powders by automatic X-ray fluorescence. Chemical Geology 5, 7 -86.
30. 1969 R. Bradshaw, A.G.P. Plant, K. Burke & B.E. Leake. The Oughterard Granite, Connemara, Co. Galway. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 68 B, 39¬65.
31. 1970 B.E. Leake. The origin of the Connemara migmatites of the Cashel district, Connemara, Ireland. Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. London. 125, 219–276.
32. 1970 B.E. Leake. The fragmentation of the Connemara basic and ultrabasic intrusions in Mechanism of Igneous Intrusion, Editors G. Newall and N. Rast, 103–122.
33. 1970 B.E. Leake. Some paradoxes in Australasian micro tektite compositional trends. Jour. Geophs. Res. 75, 349–356.
34. 1970 F. Kalsbeek & B.E. Leake. The chemistry and origin of some basement amphibolites between Ivigtut and Frederikshab, south¬west Greenland. Medd. øm Gronland. 190, No. 4, 1-36.
35. 1970 B. W. Evans & B.E. Leake. The geology of the Toombeola district, Co. Galway. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 70 B, 105–139.
36. 1971. B.E. Leake. The discrimination of ortho and para charnockitic rocks, anorthosites and amphibolites. Indian Mineralogist, Naidu volume, 10, 89–104.