September summary: 50 years in Cornwall and the Fall in Washington

September is a special anniversary for me, as 50 years ago this month I began my 22 year stint at Camborne School of Mines. CSM was totally autonomous then, with no pressure to carry out research or to publish. The merger with the University of Exeter was 19 years away.

When I was growing up in northern England, Cornwall was a remote and exotic place, a land of smugglers and pirates, with tales of ships wrecked on its wild and rugged rocky coast. I never dreamt that one day I would actually live in this mystical place and be able to show the ‘birthplace of modern mining’ to minerals engineers from around the world.

In the first week of the month Linda Shimmield, the founding secretary of the CSM Association, invited past members of CSM staff for afternoon tea in Falmouth, and some of the 'golden oldies' can be seen on the photo below.

Back row: Barry Wills (Mineral Processing), Jim Harrison and John Hills (Caretaking),
Bob Pine (Rock Mechanics and former Director), Phil Oliver (Mining),
Linda Shimmield (former CSMA Secretary)
Front Row: Barbara Wills, Carol Richards (former CSMA Secretary), Joan Oliver,
Maureen Atkinson (wife of the late Keith Atkinson (Geology and former Director)

After a very pleasant week with family visitors from Luxembourg it has been a fairly quiet month, the days shortening with the arrival of autumn. Now I am in the fall in Washington, looking forward to the XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress, which begins this evening. My report on the IMPC is scheduled for October 14th.

This morning I walked in the mizzle from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial, before crossing the Potomac River into Virginia to visit the impressive Arlington National Cemetery.