Dr. Anton Brown
1932-2009 - In Memoriam
Geology of Lavatubes: Instant caves from liquid rock.
Biology of Lavatubes: The Rock Eaters and other Extremophiles.
Extraterrestrial Caves: The ET Underground and the search for life.
Dr. Anton Brown was one of the participants on the GSA Lavatubes of Mt. St. Helens field trip. Sadly, Dr. Brown passed away suddenly and unexpectedly several days later on 19 October, 2009 at the GSA meeting in Portland, Oregon. He obtained a BSc and MSc at Imperial College, London, UK before going to work as a geologist at Opemiska, a copper mine in northwest Quebec, Canada. He returned to do his PhD at Queens in Kingston. He then taught at Queens and McGill in Canada, the University of Georgia in Athens, USA, and then under CIDA, the Canadian aid agency, in Salvador, Brazil.
On returning to Canada he joined Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., initially in Ottawa to set up the parameters for the underground storage of high-level nuclear waste, and then in Manitoba, supervising the sinking of the shaft for the Underground Research Laboratory, from which work it has been shown that this is a viable method for storage of high-level waste.
When his wife Ann joined AECL to investigate the possible microbial influences on the waste, their joint interest in geomicrobiology was established, and in 1994 initiated their research into metabolic incorporation of minerals into biofilms. Anton and Ann retired ten years ago to Sussex, UK, to be with their four children and eight grandchildren.