OBITUARY — William Murray Telford

William Murray Telford, professor emeritus of mining engineering at McGill University, has died. He was 81.

Born in Ottawa, Ont., Telford obtaining a degree in physics from McGill in 1939. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Telford was recruited by the National Research Council to help conduct research and develop advanced thermionic tubes (magnetrons, klystrons and other microwave tubes), which were essential to the development of radar. By the end of the war, he had designed the equipment for production control of these components, which were vital to the Allied war effort.

After the war, Telford registered as a doctoral student and was part of the team responsible for the design and construction of McGill’s synchrocyclotron, an atomic particle accelerator. He remained closely associated with the university’s radiation laboratory until he was appointed, in 1960, associate professor of applied geophysics in the department of mining engineering. That appointment followed naturally from a long-standing interest in geophysics: he had introduced laboratory courses in the subject while associated with the physics department, and had developed several new prospecting instruments during the 1950s.

>From 1960 onward, Telford’s chief interest was physics, especially in its applications. Postgraduate programs were soon introduced into the mining department, and the first master’s and doctorate degrees were awarded in 1963. The emphasis of his work was always on applications and field work .

He helped conceive new methods of electromagnetic prospecting and gained new insights into the phenomenon of induced polarization.

During the next 30 years, dozens of highly trained geophysicists graduated under Telford’s direction. These graduates now form the core of Canada’s geophysical exploration community.

In 1975, in recognition of his academic achievements and contributions to ore discoveries in Eastern Canada, Telford was appointed to the prestigious George Boyd Webster Chair in Mining Engineering. A year later, Applied Geophysics, a 900-page textbook of which he was the senior author, was published. Since its initial appearance, the book has been translated into Russian and French, and has been reprinted and revised several times. The book is accepted as the standard geophysical textbook worldwide.

Although Telford retired in 1982, he continued his work in geophysics at the departments of mining engineering and earth and planetary sciences.

Telford is survived by children Laurie and William.