Awards & Scholarships

Strathmore R. B. Cooke retired in 1974 from the University of Minnesota as Professor Emeritus in Geology and Geophysics and in Astronomy and Astrophysics. He received a BS degree in chemistry and a BE degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of New Zealand in 1928 and 1929, respectively, an MS degree in metallurgical engineering from the Missouri School of Mines in 1930, and a PhD degree from the University of Missouri in 1933.

From 1933 to 1936 Dr. Cooke was a Research Metallurgist at the Missouri School of Mines and served as Assistant Professor of Metallurgy from 1936to1939. He was appointed Research Professor of Mineral Dressing at the Montana School of Mines in 1939 and in 1946 as Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. In 1970 he transferred to the Development of Geology and Geophysics where he taught until his retirement.

Before obtaining his advanced degrees, Dr. Cooke acquired experience in New Zealand in coal mining and in the mining and milling of gold ores; in Australia in the production of steel; and in Canada in the flotation of lead and zinc ores. In 1967 he became associated with the University of Minnesota Messenia Expedition to examine and analyze metallurgical, lithological, and earth samples excavated from a Bronze Age site in the S-W Peloponnese, an investigation which he continued for three years following his retirement.

Dr. Cooke has written or co-authored about seventy publications, the majority of which are in the field of flotation, with various contributions to the literature in mineralogy, astronomy and in certain aspects of archaeology.