James Edwin Hawley

Who was James Edwin Hawley?

James Edwin Hawley was an award winning Canadian geologist and distinguished Professor of Mineralogy at Queen's University.

Hawley was raised in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master's degree from Queen’s University in 1918 and 1920, respectively. After completing his Masters, Hawley spent three years working in petroleum geology in Alberta, Ecuador, Burma and India. In 1926, he earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He stayed there for three years as an Assistant Professor.

In 1929, Hawley returned to Queen's as Professor and Head of the Department of Mineralogy. His earliest papers in 1929 and 1930, based on research on the generation of oil in rocks by shearing pressures, are classics in the field of petroleum geology. In 1948, he established the school's Spectrographic lab. He held that position until the Mineralogy and Geology Department were combined in 1950. At that time he was made Head of the newly created, Geological Sciences Department. He held that position until 1962. Students familiar with Mohs’ Hardness Scale referred to him as "Number 11" because the mineral, Hawleyite, was named after him.