William Alexander Deer


William Alexander "Alex" Deer FRS was a British geologist.
Deer was an Honorary Fellow of St John's College and Trinity Hall Cambridge. After completing his PhD in 1937, Deer was took the post of assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester.
Dear was Professor of Mineralogy and Petrology at the University of Cambridge from 1961, Master of Trinity Hall from 1966 to 1975, and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1971 to 1973.
He was an editor, along with Robert Andrew Howie and Jack Zussman, of the reference work Rock-Forming Minerals and the abridged version, An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals. The mineral deerite was named in his honour.
Deer married Margaret Marjorie Kidd, daughter of the electrical engineer William Kidd, in 1939 at St Paul's Methodist Church, Didsbury.

Publications