W. Brian Harland (1917 - 2003) was an eminent geologist at Cambridge University, England. He played an important early role in the advocation of the theory of continental drift and making the first observations of the global occurrence of glaciation which were to form the foundations of Snowball Earth theory. He was also a foremost figure in the ongoing maintenance of the International Geologic timescale.

He also spent 43 field seasons in the geological mapping of the Polar archipelago of Spitsbergen beginning in 1938 and lasting through to the 1980s, leading 29 expeditions. The ice field "Harlandisen" on the main island of Svalbard is named in his honour. The University retains a collection of some 70000 specimens collected over these years.

Obituary