The University is saddened to learn of the passing of Anthony (Tony) Leonard Harris, Emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of Liverpool.
The tribute below is by Professor John Wheeler, with input from colleagues who knew Tony.
Anthony (Tony) Leonard Harris C.Geol. FRSE was a renowned structural and metamorphic geologist who carried out research in the Scottish Highlands especially to understand the evolution of the Precambrian Moine and Dalradian rocks.
He undertook this by mapping and elucidating the three-dimensional geometries of these rock units. Such field studies do not need any complicated equipment but remain the wellspring of Earth Science research. He played important leadership roles in Liverpool University where he served as Head of Department and Dean of Science and in the Geological Society, where he served as President.
He was born (1935) and schooled in Cardiff, graduated in geology (BSc 1956; PhD 1959) at Aberystwyth University and excelled as Hockey goalkeeper in school and University. His PhD in the southern Dalradian between Pitlochry and Blair Atholl. In 1959 he married Noreen Jones, joined the Geological Survey in Edinburgh and continued to map the Dalradian and parts of the Moine in Scotland, eventually becoming Principal Geologist.
He joined Liverpool University as an Earth Science Lecturer in 1971, rising in 1987 to Professor and publishing a surge of important papers unravelling the structure and stratigraphy of the Moine and Dalradian strata. He led an outstanding school of post-graduate field geologists leading to a voluminous output of new work. He broke new ground in linking the structures – which resulted from multiple deformations imposed from different directions – to those found in other parts of Scotland.
Through the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP), he played a major role bringing international geoscientists together, exploiting links between his Scottish rocks and those in Newfoundland and the Appalachians (all joined together in a single mountain chain when they formed). He edited and contributed several seminal maps and books on these regions.
At Liverpool he served as Head of Department from 1983-94 and played a major role in the rapid growth of the Department to one of the most successful in the UK, with top ratings during the Earth Science Review (in 1987) and successive RAE cycles. These successes led to funding for new academic appointments, some of whom are still in post.
This period included overseeing the department’s transition from Geology to the Department of Earth Sciences, building on the overlaps between geology, geophysics and oceanography. He was twice Dean of the Faculty of Science 1994-2000, and – after all his Science Departments were top-rated at 5 in the first Research Assessment Exercise (in 1996) – he became an advisor to other Universities Geology Schools.
Tony joined the Geological Society, the principal body representing Earth Science interests in the UK, in 1967 and contributed to various initiatives to increase numbers of journal papers and books, including setting up their Publishing House in 1987. He was Secretary 1979-82, and President 1990-92. He was awarded the Society’s Coke medal in 1985, the Clough Medal of the Edinburgh Geological Society in 1989 and the Silver medal of the Liverpool Geological Society in 2003.
Fiercely proud of his Welsh heritage, he was made an Honorary Professor at Aberystwyth, and retired in 2001 to live near Cardiff, working as an Honorary Research Professor at Cardiff University.
Tony was an exceptionally sociable – and at times gently mischievous – person, with a great love of good food, drink and conversation. These he loved to share with his students and colleagues, many of whom became lifelong friends. He was scrupulously loyal to all and supportive of his staff at Liverpool and the Geological Society where he is still fondly remembered as a great leader.
He died on 05/08/2025 aged 90 years after a long illness. He leaves Noreen, a daughter Elizabeth Sian and a son David Huw and four grandchildren.