English geologist and Anglican priest

Reverend Adam Sedgwick contributed to the entire scope of geology, but mainly toward defining the Cambrian stratum of the fossil record and trying to show precisely when life originated in geologic time. As an accomplished and popular teacher, speaker, and writer, he successfully encouraged many young British scientists and intellectuals to pursue geologic inquiry, and thus set the course of British geology for over a century. The Sedgwick Museum of Geology at the University of Cambridge is named in his honor.

Sedgwick was born the son of the Anglican vicar in Dent, Yorkshire, England. His childhood hobby of rock collecting on the moors grew into his career as a geologist. After his secondary education at Sedbergh School, he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received his baccalaureate in mathematics in 1808. He became a Fellow of Trinity...