Peter Ypma (1930-)
Papers ca. 1960-1994

MSS 0094

Biographical Note

Peter Johannes Maria Ypma was born in Heemskerk in the Netherlands in 1930. He completed his secondary schooling at the Gymnasium Beta, and in 1951 obtained his B.Sc (with a major in Geology) from the State University of Leiden, followed by his M.Sc. in 1955 in Petrology and Economic Geology, and his Ph.D. in 1963 in Economic Geology.

Initially appointed as a tutor in 1955 at the State University of Leiden, he rose to the position of Senior Research Associate in 1963. In 1965 he was awarded a NATO Science Fellowship for research at the US Geological Survey in Washington D.C., followed by his appointment in 1966 as Assistant Professor in Economic Geology, and later Adjunct Professor, at Columbia University, NY. Ypma became a naturalised American citizen in 1972.

Ypma was Professor of Economic Geology at the University of Adelaide from 1973 to 1995, and was appointed Emeritus Professor in 1996. He also served as Dean of the Faculty of Science from 1983 to 1985.

These papers were received from the Dept. of Geology in 2002. Included with the Ypma papers were a series of papers of Professor Eric Aroha Rudd, Professor of Economic Geology from 1949-1970, and Emeritus Professor from 1970.

Reprints by others, loose unidentified data, unidentified photographs, duplicates, transparencies/overheads used for articles and teaching and working copies/drafts of papers and articles were discarded.

Series Listing

Series 1: Correspondence c 1970-81  18 cm
Also includes his Curriculum Vitae and address book.

Series 2: Lectures and course notes  25 cm
2.1 Lectures and course notes, mainly Economic Geology, some early 1990s but mostly undated  10 cm
2.2 Lectures and course notes: Remote Sensing [with correspondence, reports and minutes relating to establishment of the course] 1971-94. 15 cm.

Series 3: Project reports, reprints and papers c1960s-1990s  1.4 metres
Projects include mineralogical and geological and geochemical surveys in Mexico (silver), Columbia (molybdenum and antinomy), Argentine (antimony), Indonesia (tin), southwest Africa (Etosha); also re thermoluminescence (with related patent proposals/application) and logging tool development; and extensive papers re proposed cooperative Petroleum Research Centre

Series 4: Papers of Professor Eric Rudd (Professor of Economic Geology 1949-70)  90 cm
Collection of files on oil exploration, comprising newspapers cuttings, prospectuses, reports etc. mainly 1950s and 1960s with some more scattered cuttings c1970-74

Series 5: Geology Department historical ephemera  2 cm
Menus of annual School of Geology dinner 1956-66, photographs and cuttings re Sir Douglas Mawson, of Mawson laboratories, etc. [appear to be pages extracted from a binder or exhibition]

Susan Woodburn 17 July 2003
Revised by Cheryl Hoskin September 2011